Afrikaan Voices
by Doctor Yok
Summary: Kanda takes an escort mission, and it goes awry when he is stranded in South Africa with a baby and only one destination - Cairo, Egypt. Unexpected parenthood, a tribe prophecy, his past, and Afrikaan voices follow him on his trek towards his destination.
1. Escort Mission

Kanda glanced through the document with a slight expression of disdain. It was menial and easy and much too trivial for him to take on, but Komui...

"Please please please please please - " Komui pleaded, on hands and knees at Kanda's feet. The Japanese Exorcist stared at him with a sneer towards the Chinese scientist's grovelling behavior. This mission wasn't worth his time! It was so simple that it was absurd! Komui's voice incessantly ran in his head like a plane flying circles around him waving a giant banner, and he shoved the man away with a boot.

"_Fine_. If it'll get you to shut up," he said vehemently. Komui cheered.

"I'm sorry. I know you don't take small fries like this, but seriously, we've only got so many people on task, and we've got absolutely no one who could navigate. It'll take you a day or two, nothing more than that, I'm sure," Komui promised, seating himself back at his desk with perfect composure once more. Kanda rubbed the bridge of his nose and asked, "What about Lavi? Bookman? Klaud, Lenalee, Chaoji? I can't be the only one off-duty." Komui steepled his fingers, his look suddenly serious.

"Lavi is stuck in Argentina at present. The mission he took turns out to be more complicated than we originally believed. He won't be back for quite a while. Bookman is in China searching for some obscure text from one of Beijing's libraries that may have something to do with the Noah and had escaped the Bookman Organization's attention. Klaud went to Australia, Lenalee broke her leg five days ago, and Chaoji is with Klaud. Timothy's too young to go anywhere without Klaud for supervision, Allen's been gone for months in America, Froi is nowhere to be found, Noise happens to be in China with Bookman as extra support, Miranda and Crowley are in Romania-"

"I get the point, Komui." Kanda's tone was less than pleased. He wouldn't ever say it aloud, but he was slightly worried by the sudden spike in activity. He'd never known the Order to be completely and utterly empty. Lenalee was only present due to injury, and no doubt the Vatican would issue an order for her the minute she was done healing and showed the slightest amount of capability. Still, such a low level mission didn't make sense to Kanda. Why was he the one sent to go and take care of something so... _basic?_

"You won't have to take care of him long. Just a few hours. He's only a couple of months old, and he's off his mother's breast milk, so you don't have to worry about that. Not to mention, he doesn't eat much and from what I've heard, he doesn't cry too much either," Komui said, flipping through his notes. Kanda also looked back over his dossier, frowning a little.

_Basic Mission Overview: Escort Nthanda, eight months old, from East London to Johannesburg. Rendezvous at Johannesburg; take an Ark opening back to London. _

"You want to be more specific?" Kanda asked, throwing the file carelessly onto Komui's desk. The Chinese man took the dossier and stated, "How much more do you need to know? Besides, I thought you didn't want this mission?"

"I don't have much of a choice, do I?" Kanda asked. In truth, Kanda was incredibly bored. Most of the Finders were off somewhere else, doing their own thing, and the ones that were making port at the Order were boring and worn out, no challenge at all. Kanda had no one to spar with (though it wasn't like anyone would _want _to spar with him in the first place). He wasn't exactly an intellectual, and he didn't enjoy sitting in a dusty library reading old books written by dead men telling him about philosophy or some such useless information that wouldn't help him. Any other day, he'd have kicked this to the curb, but Kanda was actually, dare he say it, _longing _to go on a mission. Being cooped up did not suit well with him.

"Nthanda was orphaned nearly two weeks ago when his mother was crushed by a building. There are several warring factions in South America right now, and she was too close to a burning building. He contains an Innocence shard within his chest, but none of us are sure what it does just yet. We think it's what saved him from being crushed in that building along with his mother. He was completely untouched when the Finders found him. The nearest Black Order accessed church is in Johannesburg, so that's where you'll be headed first before taking a train to East London. It's very easy, I assure you. The only thing that makes us choose you over a Finder is the fact that the area is war torn at the moment, and you're, um, well, a little more resilient than the usual victim of circumstance." Kanda lifted an eyebrow sardonically at the mention of his 'resiliency', and he sighed. Perhaps he'd see some action. It'd relieve the monotony, if not anything else.

"So you'll take it?" Komui asked, half hopeful and half suspicious. Kanda was more flighty than most would think, vacillating over decisions for several minutes and changing his mind often. Kanda blinked, and Komui smiled.

"The Ark's already opened in the Ark room. I'm telling you, it'll be easy." Kanda could see Komui resisting the urge to knock on his desk. He had, no doubt, just jinxed his trip, but Kanda wasn't superstitious. Kanda looked off with a disgruntled expression and huffed.

* * *

><p>The train's whistle blared out into the dark, night air of East London as Kanda got off the train. He was dressed in European attire with his hair tied back to the nape of his neck. Komui had suggested stealth among all other things for this mission - attracting the Akuma was a dangerous idea given the fact Kanda would be guarding a baby, and it'd be difficult for him to shield something that small and squirmy while battling what were basically demonic, walking Gatling guns. Still, Kanda was an intimidating figure in his suit with his suitcase in hand. His sword was strapped to his back, sheathed in such a way that it resembled an instrument case rather than a sheath in order to limit panic and tension from civilians and keep him inconspicuos as a target for Akuma.<p>

Kanda had been ordered to rendezvous with a local Finder, one of the few stationed in South America, before continuing on. Kanda scratched at his ear idly, fingering the small communicator attached to the shell of his ear. He _hated _the things, but they were a lot handier than using a golem. He was using a new long-range device that had just come out, and Komui had said he was 'lucky' to get one on such short notice, though Kanda couldn't have cared less if they'd attached a continent-long string to two cups and stretched them over the entire country of Africa.

The Japanese Exorcist eyed a black man with a wide grin wearing a variant of the tan Finder uniform, cut off at the sleeves to keep off the heat. Kanda was already sweating, despite the night air being unseasonably cool. It was humid, and the jump from temperate to tropical had shocked Kanda's system. The black man walked up to Kanda with a bounce in his step, and he said in heavily accented English, "Welcohme to East Lohndun, suh. I take yoah begs for ya." The black man immediately scooped up both bags with a strange grace, and Kanda frowned as he watched the man begin to head out of the station. Kanda followed behind stoically, barely even glancing at the very, very European train stop.

They walked down several streets before reaching an automobile. It was a bit old with a fleck of rust or two, but it looked serviceable. The black man was already loading Kanda's cases into the trunk, and he said, "M'nem is Dingane, boht you ken call me Din. Do not care if you want or not." He shrugged, and Din climbed into the driver's seat. All this time, Kanda had said nary a word to him, but he climbed inside the car regardless with a slight feeling of trepidation.

As they trundled down the road, Kanda noticed something that unnerved him. He was used to going to other countries and learning to adapt, to learn bits and pieces of language as only necessary, to navigate by a mental map and memorize strange alphabets, if not understand them. This place... it was so European, he would not have guessed he'd have left England other than the fact there was a significant portion of blacks walking the streets along with drunkard whites in the horrid humidity.

"What your name, suh?" Din asked, and Kanda taciturnly answered, "Kanda." The man nodded vigorously, and he stated, "You not from Breetayn, ah you, Mistuh Kanda?" Kanda looked at Din through the rear view mirror, and he minutely shook his head. Din nodded his again with the same enthusiasm.

"You tink different, then." That was the extent of their conversation until they reached the orphanage, and that was perfectly fine with Kanda. As they got out, he inspected the front of the building with scrutiny in the dim streetlights. It was a sad, almost ramshackle place with a slightly charred, perhaps even moldy, front and a wooden sign stating _orphanage _along with the word in French and German. No Afrikaan translation was put on the front, more evidence of European influence. Din shook his head, and he said, "It a sad, sad weruld, Mistuh Kanda. Them children, I dunno 'bout. It not seem so good heuh for them. But ain' nowhere for them. No one wan' em." Kanda's eyebrows drew together just slightly, and a memory assailed him, one that he knew was not his yet was his at the same time.

_Yes, it was an orphanage, but he didn't live there. Other people lived there, other unfortunates. His mother said not to look at them - it was bad luck. Then again, she also said to pay money to the orphanage because some were not as lucky as them, but how could you pay someone you could not look at?_

Kanda disregarded the memory. They came and went, activated by random stimuli. They only happened every day or so, and sometimes they were as sparse as a few weeks apart. He no longer minded them. At one time, they would've had him killed, but now he knew they were nothing more than a piece of a life he no longer had a connection to. He grunted in response to Din's comment and began walking towards the orphanage.

He knocked on the door loudly. There was no answer. He waited another few minutes before pounding again, and yet again there was no answer. He pounded again-

and a voice shouted, in a thick British accent, "WAIT A MINUTE, OHLROIGHT? DAMN, CAN'T GI' A WINK A' SLEEP DOWN 'ERE, WOT WIF PEOPLE BANGIN' ON TH'DOOR AT BLOOMIN' MIDNIGHT!" There was the sound of heavy footsteps down the stairs before the door was suddenly yanked open by a dour-faced woman with puffy eyes. She might've been pretty. She was skinny-waisted and petite with a red, full mouth and large liquid eyes, but the awful expression of disdain she had ruined all of her features worse than a scar across the face. Kanda glared her down, and he stated, "Nthanda here? I'm from the Order." The woman frowned at him, pouting. She leaned up against the doorjamb, exposing the leonine curves of her body - something that Kanda didn't at all appreciate. He intended to go home this very night at best, and this woman was making it awfully difficult. Behind him, he could hear Din begin snickering.

"Wot? Ya nigguh, whatchu laughin' at? You ain't got no right to be snarkin' at a dame loike me; your kind like me enough," the woman said handily, and Din's happy, mirthful expression slowly dulled to one of chagrin.

"Uh, sohrry, mum, didn' mean nohthin' by it," Din said, and Kanda felt a pang of annoyance at both how easily Din was giving up and how rude this woman happened to be.

He shoved his way in, pushing the woman aside as she complained.

"Tha's trespassin'! I'll have the bobbies on you-"

"Just show me where the damn baby is, and I'll leave," Kanda grumbled, giving her a harsh stare. The woman stood there, hiking her flimsy night robe higher on her shoulders over her nightie before pouting and saying, "Ya could've just asked. No need to fuss." She started up the rickety stairs, and Kanda finally took a look at his surroundings. He was in an eight by eight foot room that was packed full of beds save for a single aisle that led to a hallway. All the walls were peeling paint, and the floors looked like they'd been half-eaten by water damage and termites. He was almost afraid he'd fall through the floor. The beds were all full to the brim with children aged sixteen and under. Most were asleep, though a few managed to sit up and stare at Kanda in confusion and wariness.

"Packed in, all like sardines. I knew it," Din muttered under his breath. He brushed a hand over his shaven head, his usually serene face slightly distorted by discontent at the plight of the children in the orphanage. Kanda was of a less sympathetic mind, though he did feel a twinge of compassion for the children within the orphanage. His own childhood had been hell, so he could only say to these kids to suck it up and get a move on. Keep moving, and eventually whatever happened to you would be behind you... The sound of pitter-patter feet met his ears, and he looked down to see a small girl in a long t-shirt. It hung off one shoulder, and it drifted around her ankles like a massive dress. Her wide, dark eyes stared up at him, and she fingered her hair as she stared. Kanda looked down at her with mild puzzlement.

"What?"

The girl finally pointed up at him and touched her hair, saying a word in a language he didn't understand. Din chuckled as Kanda lifted his eyebrows in surprise. He hadn't expected her to answer.

"Suh, she wants to touch yoah hair," Din stated. Kanda stared at him in disgruntled disbelief, and Din shrugged.

"Why would I do that?" Kanda asked, and Din said, "Curiosity - good to feed. Let her, ain't hurt nohthin'." Kanda looked down at the girl. She was still standing there, overshadowed by Kanda's height and yet she still stared at him expectantly. If anything, he could admit she was a brave little girl. Several children were staring at the girl and Kanda, waiting for some sort of response. Kanda sighed out his nose, pulling out the hair tie that held his hair back. He threw it over his shoulder and bent down, rolling his eyes as the girl gleefully laughed as she softly felt the long strands. She pulled her fingers through it, yanking, and Kanda muttered, "Ouch! Easy!" The other children gave titters-

"OI! Why do I hear laughin'? Ain'chu s'posed to be asleep, ya li'l whelps?" The woman's annoying, ear-pinching voice was like an gunshot. All the children flew under covers, hustled under pillows, and pretended to be asleep. Even the little girl who'd asked to touch Kanda's hair was gone, conditioned to respond to that woman's voice like a greyhound to a starting bell after a hare. Kanda found himself feeling as if he'd missed something important when the little girl had left, as if some answer to a question he didn't know he'd had was about to be answered up until that moment. Now she was gone, and Kanda wasn't about to expend the effort to find her.

The stairs creaked as the woman came down, her hair piled high on her head and make-up carelessly splotched on her face. In her arms was a squirming, crying bundle of humanity that Kanda would be stuck with for only the next hour or so, hopefully. The orphanage caretaker thoughtlessly handed Nthanda to Kanda without another word. Kanda tentatively took the baby, its crying and wailing immediately grating on him. Apparently, Nthanda didn't appreciate being woken up at midnight either, and he was just that much more vocal about it. The woman leaned on one leg as she crossed her arms over an ample chest, and she stated, "You know, you don't have to leave right away if you ain't got yeself a noice room. I kin give ya one for a proice." Her emphasis on him and him alone immediately repulsed Kanda. It wasn't just the total, blatant lack of respect - even Kanda had that beaten into him - but it was also just... did he _really _look like the type? That was just insulting. Not to mention she didn't even bother to look at Din, as if he were subhuman, but then again Kanda was used to people giving others bad treatment for race or other reasons.

"I've got no money. No thank you." This, of course, was a blatant lie. Of course he had money. However, this woman was really beginning to chafe his nerves. Din looked away with a telling expression that said "I know where this is going". The woman bit her lip in an offended manner, and she said, " 'Course. Cuz, yanno, I jus' run this place outta the koindness o' my own heart." The children were curiously peeping, but a single glance from the woman silenced them back to bed.

"Them woives that usually take care o' them got families 'n all, and poor li'l Bertha gets stuck here all lonely-loike at night," she said, attempting sympathy and only incurring a coquettish air. Kanda growled, "No. Thank you." Din covered up a snicker with a cough, and he said, "Madam Bertha, we be needin' go now. Got sohme places t'be soon, gotta ketch the train, right?" Kanda turned heel and followed Din, leaving behind a rather offended Bertha and several curious children.

"What kids were they?" Kanda asked, trying to speak over the wailing Nthanda imposed on the both of them. The shorter black man stated, "War victohms. Parents die in bomb blast, kids left alone. Orph'nages like that all over the place. Black people ain't happy and white people ain't happy - make war wid each other over stupid things. Leave both white and black kids by themselves, not even look at 'em." Dingane shrugged. "Sohme try very, very hard, keep them fed, happy, in clothes wid smiles. Others... not try so hard, y'know?" Kanda nodded, cradling Nthanda awkwardly as they walked back to the car. He looked down at the bundle, the dark face scrunched with displeasure. Kanda held back a sniff of disgust. Babies... not his strong suit.

"You sho that the right bebie, suh?" Din asked, pointing to the small child. Kanda undid a few of the swaddling clothes to reveal the infant's chest, which was branded with a gold circle over his breastbone. Kanda nodded.

"Right kid," Kanda stated tersely as he got into the backseat. Din nodded to himself and clambered into the front seat. They drove down the road back towards the station... and then were stopped by a couple of men wearing uniforms. They were all white men with mustaches of varying volume carrying bobby clubs and wearing flat-topped hats. There was a barricade over the road, and Kanda frowned.

"Sorry, but this district is closed off," one of the men said, leaning down towards the window of the car. Din smiled and said, "Of course, suh, right, right. Why is closed down?" The man looked off into the distance nervously while the others gave anxious looks around, and he answered, "There was a bombing at the train station, and we are told to redirect all traffic, black and white alike, along a detour route. I'm afraid you'll have to find another train station, because this one's been blown to smithereens." Kanda suppressed a groan. He fingered the communicator on his ear, and he flipped it on as Din drove into the detour the men had outlined along the street.

"Komui, there's a problem," Kanda stated with a sigh. It took a moment or two before Komui answered, "Really? What's that?"

"The train's been delayed. Probably permanently." Komui was silent... and then he said, "Let me guess. Rebels went and bombed the train station?" Kanda didn't bother to answer. Komui didn't bother to elaborate. After several moments, Kanda finally asked, "What do you want us to do now?" Komui paused hesitantly before saying, "Try to reach Johannesburg if you can. If not..." Kanda frowned.

"Komui, what happens if I can't get to Johannesburg?" Kanda asked. Din turned his head slightly to look at Kanda out of the corner of his eye.

"The only other Black Order accessible churches we have in Africa are in Johannesburg, Cairo, and Algiers. You'd have to travel from one end of the continent to the other in order to get to an accessible church," Komui said, and Kanda was suddenly thrown around as the car unexpectedly flipped. Kanda's hearing was knocked out of his head as an explosion seemed to catch up with the flipping motion of the car. The scream of metal against stone met deaf ears as the force of the blast threw the car into a building. Kanda felt his head smash into the side of the car, glass raining down as the window broke. He curled around Nthanda, instinct prompting him to protect the little, fragile life he'd been handed.

As the dust cleared and the voices hushed from their screaming, Kanda looked up blearily. He was bleeding from the side of his head, the child screaming in his arms. Din was screaming, his arm crushed by the car door and the weight of the car on top of it. Kanda unsheathed his sword, carefully cutting his way out of the car. He began to saw his way through the car, freeing Din in the process with a great heave. The Finder stood up in bleary pain, looking around at the chaos.

"What happened?" Kanda asked, his voice sounded muffled as if his ears were stuffed with cotton. Suddenly, a high-pitched cackling met his ears, and Kanda immediately grabbed Din and dragged him down to the ground behind a wall. The man shouted in loud protest and pain as he landed with a _thump _inside the hollow shell of the building. Kanda handed him Nthanda, who was wailing as if the world was coming to an end. Kanda activated his Innocence with a soft, almost lullaby-like invocation of its name. It glowed for a moment before reverting to the dull shine of metal. Kanda stayed stock still, watching outside, looking for something...

Finally, he ran out into the street, the sound of his feet echoing on the buildings over the wail of women, and his sword clashed with something almost unseen. He stared into the eyes of a massive, armored being with teeth like knives and eyes deeper than an ocean.

"Hello, Exorcist. Like my present?" it asked in a slithering, worming voice like cold, congealed oil over skin. Kanda disengaged, skidding backwards as the Level Three disappeared in a blur of speed. Kanda stood there listening in the street as everyone else remained transfixed by the sight they had just witnessed. He closed his eyes, calming his breathing until he came up with a distorted, sound-based map of his surroundings. Marie had taught him this trick. _You can always hear them before you see them. Your hearing isn't as good as mine, but I think you're better than I think you are._

Kanda suddenly whirled around, extending his sword arm. The Akuma ran itself straight through over it, choking as it gripped the blade in what seemed like confusion. Din watched from his hiding place in the rubble with something akin to amazement as Kanda dispatched the Akuma with a quick flick of the wrist. His breathing was labored as he held Nthanda against his chest protectively. No man that fast could be human. No man that _calm _could be human. They should've died, and that thing should've killed him, and yet...

He stood, hardly ruffled. He walked, hardly faltering. Din was suddenly very glad that this scary, scary man was on his side.

"I guess this means I'm keeping him for now," Kanda said. He reached down, picking Nthanda up rather roughly. Din wanted to snatch the baby back of his hands, thinking such coarse digits shouldn't be able to handle something so fragile after the feat of strength they'd just displayed. Fear coursed through Din, but he suppressed it. He was an Exorcist - this was normal. He'd seen it before, but there was something different about this performance of strength and agility. It was too... _uncanny. _

"You're injured. We're going to a hospital," the Japanese man said in clipped tones, hauling Din up to his feet. The Exorcist immediately started walking down the street.

"You know where you goin', suh?" Din asked, finally gathering his mental faculties. Kanda looked over his shoulder carelessly and stated honestly, "No." Din felt his usual smile crawl onto his face, but it felt like it didn't fit right there. Too much going on in one night. Kanda looked forwards again, still walking down the decimated street. Women screamed over their dead children, and men walked around with glazed eyes. Both blacks and whites were shellshocked and absolutely jarred by the sudden explosion that was no doubt neither the first nor last the city would see. Kanda looked behind him, watching Din. The man seemed dazed as well, but not quite as much as the others around him. Good. He was already used to the sights of war.

"Hurry. You'll bleed to death," Kanda said tersely, and they continued on.

* * *

><p>The hotel room was just beginning to lighten with the first rays of the day. Kanda had sat up all night long, turning over a broken communicator in his hands. He had no way of contacting the Order, which mean he had two options. He could stay and wait for another contingent of Exorcists to come and help him, but he'd die before that happen. That was just disgraceful, as if he was saying he couldn't complete this mission, an easy mission no less, by himself. His second option was to find a way up to Johannesburg by any means necessary. However, with both options, there was a single, perplexing, and, dare he say it, <em>scary <em>problem.

Nthanda was swaddled in new blankets, face scrunched up in a dream. He gave a small whimper before turning over on his side. Kanda carefully turned him back over onto his back. Kanda hadn't ever thought that something could scare him quite as much as a small, innocent, completely helpless baby could. He hadn't gotten any sleep because the loud noises would wake the kid up, and then he'd get hungry (that posed another unique problem, seeing as Kanda didn't know how to feed him), and then he'd just get _cranky. _What scared him more than anything else, though, was that the child would turn over and suffocate to death. Kanda's one task was to keep him alive, and there was something terrifying about it all of a sudden. It had started out as a simple 'escort mission.' Now, it was entailing actual _care _on his part, and he wasn't sure if he was cut out for it.

Still, he was careful to mask this sudden, new found terror. He looked outside, where the streets were just beginning to wake. The vendors were wheeling out carts, and men and women shouted to one another in greeting. Their smiles were happy and bright, despite the horrors of last night and the bombings that had occurred. Several had been near enough to rock the building, but Kanda couldn't see where they had originated; his side of the hotel was facing the wrong way, away from the bombings.

Kanda walked into the bathroom, feeling fuzzy headed and disgruntled. He stared into the mirror at his frazzled self. His hair was a complete and utter mess. He hadn't even bothered to fix it when he'd come in last night. It was too much hassle, and the kid was already screaming his head off anyways. His eyes had bags under them, no doubt from his sleepless night. He stretched out his cheeks, the pale skin not even bothering to flush under the pressure of his fingers. He let go, and his face reverted back to its normal shape. He looked unhealthy, all in all, which was a first.

And for a moment, his reflection changed ever so slightly, and it was as if some other person was staring back at him. His reflection was the same... but there was something fundamentally off, changing Kanda into someone else entirely. Kanda frowned in vexation, and his reflection was his once more. He drummed his fingers on the counter underneath the mirror, and he dismissed this strange occurrence. He hadn't slept, and perhaps he was more prone to strange imaginings under such conditions.

He walked back towards the doorway, staring into his room. The kid was still lying on the bed, fingers in his mouth as he breathed loudly. Kanda felt that same unsettling feeling clothe and choke him. It seemed he was about to have parenthood thrust upon him.

He would take it as a challenge.

* * *

><p><strong>AN**: Okay, for those of you who've read 'Chasing After The Wind', this is in the same timeline and universe. Of course, this story won't have quite the same theme and plot line, but I definitely hope that you all end up liking it as much as you've liked CATW.

As with every story, I will recognize those who review, subscribe, and favorite this story. I will gladly answer questions - that does _not _mean I will be giving away plot points or key twists in the story. I don't give out freebies. :) However, do feel free to discuss your opinions and presumptions on plot, character, etc. in the reviews, as it is greatly appreciated - I love to see what you guys are all thinking.

Also, for those who want a real challenge, do look at Ella Unlimited's reviews for the story Chasing After The Wind. Those reviews are top notch, and I love to see those sorts of responses. However, I will take any sort of feedback (even the type that says I suck and I need to quit). Even if it's a three page rant on how badly I've written, I will nevertheless post acknowledgement of your feedback in the recognition section of the story. I will say it again - _any sort of feedback is welcome. _Go ahead and troll me, for all I care. Or Rick Roll me. Those are always fun._  
><em>

Now that I've eaten up enough of your time...

-Dr. Yok


	2. Crash Course In Childcare

Kanda looked up at the imposing building, sighing to himself as he switched the baby to his other arm. He'd visited Din in the hospital. He was going to be realized in the next week or so, and until then Kanda would just have to survive on his own. Of course, Kanda was going to have to come up with a new way to approach this problem, so he was doing it the only way he really knew how - treat it like an enemy. The first thing that one did before attacking an enemy was to learn as much about them as one could. Knowledge was always the best weapon (though Kanda himself usually decided that tackling the problem head on with little to no detail was the best solution). Therefore, he would learn whatever he could about childcare and the rest.

As much as he hated reading, especially reading English, he didn't want to ask a random woman or some matron about how to take care of a child. That was just demeaning. He would be able to do it on his own, and he knew it. With this mindset, he waltzed right into the building with a baby on one arm and a suitcase on the other. However, as he stepped inside, he realized that he was completely lost.

The library was enormous. Rows upon rows upon rows of books, with staircases everywhere. There were people climbing ladders into the upper levels of shelves, and Kanda could already feel his intellect start to shrink within itself as it succumb to the sheer amount of information that was presented before him. There was no way he was just going to _find _some book on -

"Excuse me, sir, but do you need some help?" a young man asked, toting a large armful of books. Kanda blinked, almost dazed, and he said before he could actually think, "No." The man looked mildly surprised, but he nodded and said, "Well, all right then. Good day, sir." He walked off, his armful of books almost seeming to sway as he walked down a corridor lined with tomes. Kanda found himself lost among the books, surrounded by paper and ink.

As if on cue, Nthanda began to wail loudly. Kanda sighed with resignation. He'd better start looking.

About an hour later, he was ready to pull out his hair. For one, the kid wouldn't stop screaming. For two, he couldn't find _anything. _Of course, his method was to pull out random books and check what they were about. For three, he didn't read a whole lot of English - mission dossiers were the extent of his light reading. For four... he had no idea what he was doing. He finally sat down in a chair with a great '_whump' _and sat there, staring at Nthanda as if the child were the spawn of Satan himself.

"Uh... sir? Could you quiet him, please? We have other people here who wish to read," an elderly, stuffy looking woman stated. She wore half-moon glasses, and her hair was piled on her head in a neat, prim bun that probably kept her face from sagging. Kanda resisted the urge to glare at her. He sighed as he gathered up Nthanda.

"Yeah. I'll just move." However, she noticed Kanda was awfully awkward in handling the child, his hands more used to the delicate use of a slim blade rather than a cumbersome human infant. She touched his arm, and he stared at her curiously.

"What?" he asked, rather defensively. She opened her mouth, trying to find words...

"What were you looking for?" she asked. She gestured to him to hand her the child, and he did so. She frowned as she held the boy, and she suddenly undid his swaddling cloths.

"Um, childcare, actually," Kanda said, his voice strong but still holding a hint of embarrassment. He was hesitant as she laid the baby on the table, and then peered in his diaper. She suddenly jerked back as a miasma suddenly smacked them both in the face, and Kanda cringed. He'd forgotten - babies needed changing, too.

"Oh dear. Yes, yes you do need a book on childcare. Here, I'll take care of this little one for now, and I'll show you to that section of the library," the old woman said, replacing Nthanda's diaper to its original position. She picked Nthanda up with a practiced motion Kanda was sure he'd never be able to replicate. He followed her with chagrined footsteps, suddenly feeling out of his depth in a way he didn't think possible. Still, he held his head up high, glaring at those that would stare at him in confusion. His look withered glances and shrunk countenances as they felt the heat of his gaze, and they quickly turned their faces away.

The woman gestured to a corridor that looked just like every other corridor Kanda had seen.

"This is the section for childcare. Do feel free to browse, take notes, and such. There's stationary on the desks, and there are pens. Please, do try not to make a mess," the woman said haughtily, and with that she walked off. Kanda, suddenly caught between a rock and a hard place, decided to leave his sword in the corridor as he followed the woman. He didn't want to run the risk of him getting kidnapped, as unlikely as that may be. Akuma could be crafty, and Kanda was not willing to bet a child's life on the presumption that someone was human.

However, he figured that the woman was probably a human, after she deftly changed the baby's diaper on a table outside of a bathroom. He blinked as he watched her wash off the child, wipe him clean, replace his diaper with a new cloth, and then set him back down after a brief blush of talcum powder. Nthanda sat there in what seemed like awe, and he slapped his hands on the table. The woman smiled to herself, and she looked behind her in surprise.

"Hmmm, you followed?" she said, looking down his nose at his stern, harsh countenance.

"Yeah. Got a problem?" he asked gruffly, and she sighed.

"You, sir, need a few lessons in child care, I see," she stated, folding her hands behind her back as she began to walk away. "I suggest you start reading those books, or else that babe will not live to see next week, much less the rest of his life." Kanda resisted the urge to scoff as he followed her back to the aisle full of childcare books. The woman gave a sharp sniff before walking off, and Kanda toted his charge into the aisle with him, sitting down in a large, plush chair. He picked up a random book on the small end table next to him, and he began to read it.

_Childcare and the Modern Mother..._

After nearly five books of absolutely mind-numbing how-to books, Kanda was ready to give up right there and then. So far as he could tell, there was plenty of information, but he had no way of remembering it. He'd taken a notepad and pen with him, but he'd put down nothing to paper. There was just so much that went into taking care of a kid, from bottle-feeding to changing diapers to cleaning clothes to testing milk to boiling the bottles to every other thing that he could think of...

Suddenly, Nthanda began to wail, and several of the library aides turned to stare at him. He returned their curious looks with withering glares of his own, and they went back about their business rather promptly. Nthanda squirmed in Kanda's lap, trying to escape, and Kanda had a hard time trying to read and hold him at the same time. Finally, he gave up, chucking the book back onto the nearest table and picking up the squirming, crying baby. He glared at it as if it were the spawn of the devil itself, and he checked the diaper rather hesitantly. Nothing there but a rather dark bum and some cloth. No smells either, for which Kanda was thankful for. The kid was just bawling his eyes out, and Kanda wasn't sure why.

"Damn it, kid, what do you want?" he muttered to himself. He had no way of knowing what the child was crying for. It wasn't as if he could ask him - he was too young to speak. He couldn't just tell from how he was screaming either. To him, all screams sounded the same. For all he knew, the kid was just cranky.

And suddenly, it hit him. The baby was hungry. After all, kids had to eat. Even Kanda had to eat every now and again, albeit the fact he ate rather unhealthy foods, but he could afford it with his metabolism. He set Nthanda down in the chair he had originally occupied, and he began to pore over the books he'd already read. Now, what did they say about feeding babies? Especially ones that were almost a year old... He flipped through the book, finding nearly nothing other than pap, which was a foreign word to him completely. He lunged forward suddenly as Nthanda nearly rolled out of the chair, crying his little lungs out, and Kanda felt like he was about to lose his mind already. Finally, he picked up the kid, and he stuffed a few of the books into his bag. He'd just check them out, find a place to hole up for a little while (his hotel had kicked him out after a problem with the bellhop calling him a woman), and find some food for the kid.

He started to walk out when suddenly, someone said, _"Stupid, can't even feed a baby. Even I knew how, and I didn't even have a mama to show me." _Kanda stopped in his tracks, and he slowly turned to look over his shoulder. There was no one in the aisle behind him, but that voice had to have come from somewhe-

_"Are you even listenin' to me? Can't believe they picked you to take care of my baby. That just ain't right to send a man to do a woman's job. Hey!" _Suddenly, a book hit Kanda smack dab in the back of his head, and he turned around in a whirl to stare down the aisle.

There was no one there. He was sure of it. But someone had to have thrown that book, and someone had to be throwing books at him...

_"Finally got your attention. 'S what I thought."_

"The hell...?" he muttered under his breath, his eyes wide with confusion and maybe a hint of fear. Was he going crazy... He knew that taking care of a kid could drive a man insane, but he didn't think it was literal. Nthanda stopped crying, frowning for a minute before grabbing onto Kanda's arm and gurgling in a disconcerting manner. Kanda stood stockstill, and he walked into the aisle. He licked his lips nervously. If he was truly going crazy, he was a danger to his charge, and if he _wasn't _crazy, that mean that something very... strange was going on.

_"Damn, that took a lot of effort. Books is heavy. Hey! Listen to me! Don't you walk away from me!"_ Kanda kept walking, almost retreating even, with Nthanda squirming and crying in his arms, pulling on his hair, and just plain throwing a fit. Kanda winced with every yank, but he stolidly ignored the voice harassing him at every step.

_"Stupid ass, I wanna help you! You feed him anything that's been boiled!" _Kanda stopped. Another thought occurred to him. Perhaps... these were residual memories? Or maybe those memories were manifesting as a voice, a woman's voice. Still, it was awfully farfetched, yet at the same time it was an appealing thought. Not only did it mean he _wasn't _truly crazy, per se, but there was a reason for his supposed 'madness'. He wasn't sure where the advice had come from - after all, to his knowledge he didn't remember being a baby or having a child in his past life - but he didn't question it lest it disappear due to an understanding of its impossibility.

"You're not pulling - ouch! Quit it, you little - my leg?" he asked experimentally, muttering under his breath as he continued walking.

_"Hell, why would I do that? I ain't stupid, honey. Trust me, boil or bake yourself a yam and share it with the baby, 'n he'll be right as rain. Damn, gotta teach you all sorts of stuff, don't I? You's the saddest lookin' replacement father God could've picked out." _Kanda didn't need to be reminded. He huffed as he finally reached the end of the library. The same woman who'd helped him was sitting at the front desk, looking through half-moon spectacles at a massive sheaf of papers. She looked up when Kanda approached, and she asked, "Do you need any more help?" She paused a moment to look at Nthanda, who was still bawling. Kanda shifted the baby into a different position so to break her line of sight with him, and he stated, "I'm fine."

He began to walk out of the building, but a shouted "wait!" stopped him. He turned around slowly, afraid that maybe this was another apparition or figment of his imagination. The old lady hiked up her skirt in order to catch up to him, and she stated, "Do you have anywhere to stay?" Pride held his tongue - Nthanda, on the other hand, loosened it with a well-placed scream. He winced at the sheer volume Nthanda could achieve, and he rubbed his ear as he grumbled, "No, actually." The old woman almost smiled, a shadow of a grin creeping up on her wrinkled features, but she kept her composure.

"Well, I have many empty rooms in my house. After my husband died, all the children left for school and abroad, and so I have a lot of space. Would you mind staying? I could help you with the child, and perhaps you could explain how you came by him. I do apologize if I'm being presumptuous, but I do not believe you are the child's biological father," she said drily, and Kanda almost gave his usual response. Still, he kept his tone respectful, and he answered, "Sure. Why not?"

* * *

><p>The house was a lot bigger than he'd anticipated. In fact, it was a borderline mansion built in the colonial style. He whistled as he bounced Nthanda in his arms. The kid finally gave up and went to sleep, whimpering every now and again. He'd been fussy for the past hour or so on the way to the woman's house, and he'd only managed to get the kid to sleep after feeding him a short snack of crushed crackers. Nthanda still squirmed in his arms, even in sleep, and Kanda wondered if this kid had to eat more than usual because of the parasitic Innocence buried in his chest.<p>

The old woman walked past him and opened the door with a key around her neck, and she gestured for Kanda to follow him. He felt awkward walking into someone else's house. It felt an awful lot like trespassing, and Kanda had trespassed numerous times on accident. The results varied from the awkward to the downright dangerous. Nevertheless, he walked into the well-decorated house. Nthanda finally woke up and began to wail, and he absentmindedly shifted the kid so that he was leaning against his shoulder. The old lady who'd invited him inside walked straight into towards the kitchen, winding through a labyrinthine array of hallways. He glanced at the harsh portraits of past dames and their escorts.

"This house belonged to my ancestors in Bristol. Most of those paintings are from England, in fact. I don't believe you're familiar with the Leverrier family?" Kanda practically smashed into a side-table at the sound of that name, his blood freezing cold and solid in that one instance. He found himself tongue tied, but the old woman must've took it as stoic disinterest because she stated, "I'm not surprised if you haven't. We've thinned out over the years. For some reason, our children have such high mortality rates. It's a shame." She tittered as she quipped, "Perhaps it's because of all the inbreeding. We tend to marry within the family. Oh, dear, I'm rambling now. Ah, here we are, the kitchen."

The kitchen looked well stocked and well furnished. Kanda wouldn't know, of course. He hardly ever had to step inside of one. He stood off to the side, unsure of what exactly to do in this new environment, as he shifted Nthanda again while the little, underweight and underfed eight month old squirmed and grabbed.

"That little tyke bomb you have there is probably famished. I know just the thing to make," the old lady stated, and she walked out of the kitchen to a courtyard in the back. Kanda walked over to the window, and he sighed in annoyance as he watched the old lady dig through a massive sack yams.

_"What'd I tell ya? Boil a yam, all ya gotta do. Even the old lady knows 'at,"_ the voice stated rather triumphantly, and Kanda answered back with much snark, "Probably because she's had twelve freaking kids of her own." The voice fell quiet, and Kanda felt a bit of panic at its absence, but he managed to suppress it. This was stupid. He didn't need a disembodied voice telling him what to do. He could figure things out on his own.

The old lady came back into the house with two yams, and she began to wash them in the sink.

"Would you be a dear and get me a pot of - oh, I forgot. You have the baby. Here, put him in that chair there. Yes, that one. Goodness, I haven't had to use a high chair in so long." Kanda took down a pot easily with one hand, filled it with water from a spigot outside, and came back in. As they boiled the yams, the old lady sat down at the table next to Nthanda, and she said, "I have some cereal, I think, in the cupboard there. For the meantime, that will keep him quiet. I don't believe he's had a proper meal since he's been born. Look at him, he's so skinny." Kanda almost winced at that statement. As a Parasitic wielder, his metabolism was practically at light speed. It was a wonder he hadn't died yet.

"Now, what is your name, young man?" she asked congenially, readjusting her half-moon spectacles across her thin nose. Kanda wondered if he could stay quiet, but...

"Kanda," he answered tersely, staring dead into her searching eyes. He wasn't one to be afraid of questions. The old lady nodded, and she stated, "My name is Ms. Ellis Leverier. I used to be Ms. Ellis Goldfield, but Mr. Goldfield has long since passed. Now, what are you doing in the middle of East London with a baby?"

Kanda was terse, using only the barest of details to tell her of the journey from Johannesburg to East London and the events thereafter. The old lady's face paled slightly, and she took a deep breath.

"Did you know about the Order?" Kanda asked seriously. "If you do, that means you know how deep you're in." Ellis wiped her glasses on her blouse, and she straightened in her seat. She smoothed back a strand of graying brown hair, and she stated, "Yes, I, uh, am familiar with the Order. Was a Central worker, actually, but I quit. I was only a pencil pusher, though, didn't see anything of too much importance other than bills and whatnot. I didn't work with Exorcists or the Science Department, but I do know the gist of what you're fighting." There was a heavy silence as the two stared at each other.

"This must mean that my house is in danger, doesn't it?" she asked rather seriously, and Kanda gave a nearly imperceptible nod. Nthanda chewed on crackers as Ellis did a few things around the house, and Kanda walked out side to look into the overgrown garden while keeping an eye out for any Akuma that may be around. Once the food was done, Ellis showed Kanda how to make baby food - a very easy process, it turned out, seeing as Nthanda was old enough for solids. Still, Kanda managed to ruin the first attempt by busting the entire yam on the floor, letting out a ribbon of rather colorful words soon after, but he got the second one right.

As Nthanda ate, Ellis said, "I think it'd be best if I got you two train tickets. If you're going to Cairo, you'll need to take one of the transcontinental railroads." Kanda looked up from feeding Nthanda. He frowned.

"Eager to get rid of us already?" he stated drily, and Ellis rolled her eyes. She muttered under her breath about young men and their sense of humor before answering, "It's not that I do not want you here. I'm an old woman. I don't have much else to live for. However, I know that child is probably very important, and it's best you get ahead of your enemies. No doubt, you've been overdue for another attack by now. Stay the night, we'll get you a ticket, and I'll turn in a form for reimbursement from the Church. I know my way around the pound." She mischievously rubbed her fingers together with a gleam in her eye before coughing into her hand.

"Anyhow, I will tell you any and all you need to know about babies and taking care of one while you are here. Heaven knows, you need the help," she said, muttering the last sentence with a pointed look to the ground. Kanda sighed out his nose in annoyance, but he didn't answer back. He merely continued to feed Nthanda with the miniature spoon Ellis had given him.

For the next five hours, he learned from her as well as he could. She taught him how to heat a bottle, how to make other foods from what was on hand, how to wash diapers (a task he found absolutely horrendous - there were very few things that could make Kanda gag, but this managed to beat all other disgusting activities by a landslide), how to change diapers (an equally horrendous task as the one stated previously), how to make sure Nthanda didn't suffocate in his sleep from rolling over, and how to swaddle a child with whatever cloth was around. The old woman found her patience pushed to its limit as he continually failed, and Kanda's own ability to put up with so much failure was wearing thin as well. He was used to getting things right on the first try, and this was just demeaning.

Exhausted, he sat down in a large armchair. Nthanda played on the floor with a blanket, gurgling as he tried to roll up in the blanket. Ellis' bun had come unraveled, pieces sticking in odd directions. She wiped her forehead, suffering in the florid heat of South Africa, though she would've thought that she'd have gotten used to it by now. Kanda himself found the heat almost unbearable. He was used to the northern climes of Europe and Asia, where the air was much cooler and drier. Even China was better than this humid, sticky atmosphere. Ellis looked down her aquiline nose to stare at Nthanda, who looked up at her with what seemed to be a melancholy look. She gave a weary little grin, and she stated, "He's an interesting one, but at the least he isn't fussy for no reason. I have had to mother ungodly babes before, and that, dear, is a tiring task to remain loving and endearing towards one's own offspring." Kanda raised an eyebrow at the use of 'dear' - terms of endearment were not usually used in the same sentence as his acknowledgement, but perhaps for her it was habit.

Nthanda began to crawl towards Kanda, and the Japanese Exorcist picked him up and set him back down on the blanket. The baby suddenly curled up and stared across the room, not moving. Kanda frowned, and Ellis blinked in surprise. Nthanda sat up and looked around a bit before staring off past them into a hallway. Ellis frowned, and she muttered, "Oh dear." Kanda looked at her in confusion.

"What?"

"His mother died some time ago, correct?" Kanda thought back. The date of death was on his dossier, but he couldn't remember very well when that had been. At most, he thought it was about two weeks.

"I'm not sure. Maybe a week or two ago. Why, is there something the matter with him?" Kanda asked. Great, another complication to add on top of all the other issues assailing him. Ellis walked over to Nthanda and picked him up, sitting him in her lap as she peered into his face. He didn't even look at her. The baby was being unresponsive to anything that Ellis did.

"... I have seen this before. Children are regularly separated from their mothers here. Their mothers either die or are arrested or they somehow manage to get lost and lose sight of Mummy Dearest. He misses his mother," Ellis said with a sad look. Nthanda squirmed away from her, and the old woman put the baby back onto the blanket. Nthanda curled up with his thumb in his mouth and continued to stare.

"What does that mean?" Kanda asked. All right, so he was separated from his mother. What was the big deal? He had someone to take care of him now, didn't he? What was the issue?

"He may not develop correctly without his mother, though I believe he will recover. You'll just have to take extra care of him. Be sure to play with him, talk to him, keep an eye on him. Babies can be just as depressed as adults. Human emotion is not privy to much change," Ellis explained, and Kanda chewed it over. He was suddenly worried. He couldn't provide all of that, along with protecting the kid, feeding him, clothing him, bathing him, making sure he was all right in the middle of the night. Suddenly feeling swamped, he got up and paced. He wasn't cut out for this. He'd accepted this challenge thinking that perhaps he could just _poof _and have the available resources and knowledge on hand via books and learning as he went, but he now realized that this was much more work than he'd anticipated.

"I wouldn't lose sleep over it, though. I'm sure you'll be fine."

_"You'd better be. I may not be here physically, but I sure can try to whoop ass on anyone who doesn't take care of my baby." _Kanda's head snapped up at the voice, which he hadn't heard all day. He resisted the urge to bark at the voice to shut up, knowing that such behavior probably would not bode well for the image he had made for himself in front of this old woman who somehow managed to be related to Malcolm Leverier.

"Dear? Is there something the matter?" Ellis asked, and Kanda shook his head.

"The wind. That's all."

* * *

><p>Kanda woke up to the sound of crying. At first, he didn't understand where he was. It was very, very dark, and the bed he was in was not the one he was accustomed to. It was too soft and fluffed up with too many feathers and not enough firmness. It smelled odd, too, like a mix of old perfume and dead roses. Finally, the events of the day came back, and he slowly sat up. The crying he was hearing was Nthanda. It was a pitiful noise, like the keen of someone who'd lost a person they dearly loved. It hit him that this horrible crying was exactly that.<p>

_Cinders and smoke, covering the entire area as he wandered about. Wailing in the air. Smell of death and decay. Lost his mother. Couldn't see her. Couldn't see sisters. Cackling in air. Screaming now, from his lungs. Laying there dead with her little body crushed. So young, so fragile. Fragments of memories. Loss, pain, hurt, wandering. No home for him. Home had disappeared with the gunfire and the sword he found in his grandfather's room._

Kanda nearly gasped by the vividness of the memory. For just a moment he could smell the smoke and bodies, the rubble and the rain. Mugen sat on his bed like an odd bedfellow, glistening, and Kanda wondered if that thing he had regarded as friend for so long might have been the reason he was here in the first place. Nthanda's wailing drew him out of his introspection, and he walked towards the crib that held his charge. He looked inside of the crib with a tired expression as Nthanda continued to cry.

_"My poor baby... You know who I am now?" _Kanda was too tired to censor his answer.

"I'm not an idiot. You're his mother."

_"Well... just to get it out of the way." _

The two of them stared in on the baby crying, one of them unseen and the other ravaged by so much time, terror, and age.

_"Could you do me a favor? It ain't nothin', just somethin' small." _Kanda wished he had something corporeal to look at so he could give her a withering glare. He only stared into the crib with a half-hearted attempt to appear peeved.

_"Oh, come on! I'm a dead mother who wants to hold her child! Just pick him up and hold him for me, for the love ah God!" _Kanda was shocked for a moment by the amount of distress and frustration he heard, but he guessed that was to be expected. He stood at the crib, deliberating whether he should do as she asked or not.

_"I cain't stand to hear my baby wail like that. I can't... can't bear to know I cain't even hold 'im. You don't what that's like... I pray you never know what that's like." _Kanda stared at Nthanda for a few moments, wondering if the baby could hear his mother's voice. It didn't seem like it, seeing as he was still wailing. Finally, he reached into the crib, picking Nthanda up by the armpits and cradling him against his shoulder. The little boy squirmed and scrambled to get away, fussing and crying before he became too tired to go on. Kanda held him for what seemed like an age, staring at the boy with the gold circle in his chest. Finally the kid started to fall asleep, breathing softly against shoulder.

Kanda looked down at the baby with a look akin to curiosity. The child was warm, so warm in fact that he felt as if he had a fever, yet his skin wasn't flushed. Of course, to him the feel of flesh against flesh was alien and strange, so perhaps this was normal. Absentmindedly he poked Nthanda's hand, and the baby gripped his finger instinctively. He felt a strange sensation of amusement as the baby hugged his finger, which was so large in comparison the rest of the infant. How was it that once he too was this small-

No. His face sobered. It was not he that had once been this small. The other person... that other man who he'd been had once been an infant no larger than a loaf of bread. Kanda himself had been bred in a tank and given an artificial life, one that was meant to be half-lived, preoccupied with fighting and training.

But that wasn't true, not really. He felt a twitch somewhere inside of him. As much as he liked to believe he was only a machine for fighting and generally making the lives of other Exorcists practically miserable, he did have other interests and hobbies, as much as common belief would hold that to be false. He loved watching birds, especially birds of prey, circle in the sky, and he liked the quiet. He liked gardens, and he was even interested in different forms of art (and after all, he was Tiedoll's student, and he was bound to get into art anyways). He wasn't just a machine.

Was he? When did he suddenly become his own person? After all, he was never anything like Lavi before he had come to the Order, who had been nothing more than a husk of a human being used as a receptacle for information when he first arrived. And yet, his only purpose had been to fight. 

His struggle with this question was interrupted when Nthanda made a whimpering noise as he curled up against Kanda, grabbing a hold of his hair. He winced as the infant tugged gently in his sleep, and Kanda had to untangle his fingers from the intertwining strands. Tomorrow, he'd get a train ticket or travel with a caravan, and they'd be off for Johannesburg. From there, he could call the Order from a church. His golem had been smashed in the ensuing chaos the night before. He'd have to pick up Din, too. He'd need him to navigate.

Kanda sat down, thinking hard about what he was going to do the next day, and, hardly without knowing it, he slowly leaned back as his eyes began to droop. Even training had not been as arduous as taking care of a child full time. At least with training, one could end when they wanted. A child... not so much. He felt weary to his bones. His thoughts began to fade out as his eyes slipped closed until he was finally asleep in the armchair, arms instinctively cradling Nthanda as the little boy slept, and a ghostly lullaby hummed in the air as they drifted.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** Huh, I haven't been quite as productive as of late. No wonder, I have a million and one other things to do, but I like this idea too much to put it on a shelf.

Great thanks to EXO718, Tysunkete, karina001, and Kracken l.w for reviewing. I should probably tell you guys this right now, I tend to judge my stories by the reviews it gets. I don't care a lot about how many people read it, as long as they say something about it. That way I know that A) it's been read and B) it's been critiqued enough that people might actually _enjoy _the story (heaven forbid - my only goal is to make you guys miserable. Ha! Kidding).

However, I do recognize my subscribers and the ones who favorite the story: on team Subscribe we've got karina001, NamioftheSea, and Tysunkete. On team Favorite, we have one lonely little person, 3 akuma 3. Wow, you guys on team Favorite had better step it up! That's a total of three to one!(Yes, I am treating this like a game - bear with me and my eccentricities)

Thank you for reading.

P.S.: I plan on asking a discussion question after each chapter in order to get the feel of what you guys think, just to get you started if you don't know what to review on. So, question: How well do you think Kanda will be taking to this whole 'caretaker' thing? Why is Nthanda's mother's ghost following them? And what is her name? What suggestions do you have on normal baby problems (as I am sorely lacking in imagination on babies and the issues of taking care of one)?


	3. A Disaster Waiting To Happen

Early in the morning, the quartet stood at a train station on the very, very outskirts of town. It was a little known station in East London that few frequented but was now booming with business after the latest train bombing. Before the sun had risen, Ellis and Kanda picked up Din from the hospital. He wasn't fully healed, and they had been reluctant to allow him to leave, but after Din's objections to staying within the filthy, state-run hospital, they decided that he could make it on his own.

"It take much more to harm this man, oh yes suh, it does," the black Finder stated. He'd picked up his telephone from the front desk, which he'd had to remove from the shattered wreck of his car two nights before, and immediately called the Order. They had given them instructions that Kanda wasn't very happy to hear.

Allen was most definitely missing in America. Right after Kanda had come back from Asia on a visit to Zhu, Allen had gone off into the United States to clear out an infestation of Akuma, only to find himself suddenly embroiled in the conflict there between the Americans. He was lost somewhere, and they couldn't find him. He was the only one who knew how to handle the Ark correctly, and they didn't want to risk opening a door and accidentally break it somehow (though Komui said that it was more the Vatican's politics and red tape that had to do with the inability to receive a door than the lack of ability on part of the scientists working it). Kanda would have to find another Black Order based church, possibly in Johannesburg, where he could come back home, or at the least relieve Din with another Finder.

"You should be fine, I'm sure. I'm terribly sorry about this, Kanda. I really am. I didn't know -"

"Stop apologizing. It doesn't get any work done." With that, he'd hung up, and he'd asked Ellis for three tickets to Johannesburg. The faster the train, the better.

And so, here they were. The train had yet to come, and people were on edge. The train bombing still haunted many of the people at the station. No doubt, they were the same commuters who'd been at the last bombing, only to narrowly escape with their lives. Kanda himself felt slightly jittery, but that might be because of the strange dream he'd had the night before.

Kanda didn't have dreams, normally. Or, more accurately, he never remembered them. It was always a vague feeling in the morning, an aftertaste over the pallet of his mind. Last night, however, he had entertained the oddest sort of dream, one that had surpassed the events of the day before, enough to top the voice of a dead woman following him around and the strange situation he'd somehow managed in which to be caught.

He'd been at the top of a plateau, half-naked and almost completely stark white with dust. The sun was rising over the land beneath him, painting things with rich gold as the dark backdrop of the sky provided a contrast to the lightening features of the landscape. Nthanda had been bundled in his arms as his hair had whipped around his head while a fierce wind slashed away the land. He'd closed his eyes, and when he'd opened them again, he saw a dark troupe of men surrounding him. Their faces had been hidden, and they all chanted in low tones in a language he didn't understand. Nthanda's chest had glowed a bright gold as they chanted, and a fierce wind again ripped away that scene to show him the next - a lake spread out before him like a mirror, reflecting him as a ghostly white man covered in war paint with a sword strapped to his back and in his arms a dark babe crowned with a diadem and a scepter in his small hand. The lake rippled, a voice called - then suddenly, he'd been jarred awake by the sound of a car's horn blaring outside.

"The train should be here any minute now. I apologize if it's a bit crowded. Usually, this station is nearly empty by this time," Ellis explained, handing Nthanda back to Kanda. She tickled him, and the baby squirmed minimally, but otherwise showed no other outward signs. Ellis pursed her lips at his lack of reaction.

"This babe will have a harsh life ahead of him. Being separated from his mother so young - I don't think he'll ever fully recover," Ellis thought out loud, her face somber. She shook her head.

"Too many babies are separated from their mothers too early. He was lucky to be blessed by God with Innocence, or else he'd have stayed in an orphanage until he was twelve," she said, adjusting her glasses with small, precise hands. She looked up as she heard the sound of screeching wheels. Kanda looked down at Nthanda, the child very still with wide open eyes as he watched everything with a strange sort of observation. Kanda narrowed his eyes for a moment, but he said nothing to the comment Ellis had made.

"I will get our begs, suh. I handle it for you, you've got deh babe 'n all," Din said, picking up one of their suitcases with his good arm, but Kanda grabbed his own suitcase before the other man could reach for it with the same arm.

"I'm good. You'll injure yourself. Save it for later," Kanda stated tersely, watching for the train. Din stopped for a moment in confusion, not used to this sort of treatment, but he decided that this was a good thing and shrugged nonchalantly. His arm was held in a sling with a splint, as the hospital could afford no more than that for a poor black man with a broken arm, and he was careful to keep from jostling it. They all watched the train pull in, and Din headed towards it as it began to slow down.

_"Ya'll be careful, now, on that train. Bad stuff kin happen on a train, if y'ain't careful. Robbers, tribesmen, that sorta thing," _the voice said, and Kanda resisted the urge to answer it.

"I believe this is where we part ways. I hope you good travels. Do take these letters with you, if you would. They're for others in the Order. All you need to do is give them to the church in Johannesburg, and they will send them off for me. There's a dear. You have all the food you need? Nappies, bottles, snacks, blankets -"

"We've got everything, Grandma. You packed like we'd be leaving for weeks, not a few hours," Kanda stated drily, and Ellis raised one salt-and-pepper eyebrow, her eyes shrewd behind her half-moon spectacles. She shook her head, her bun practically stationary on her head as she moved, and she shooed them off.

"Go, go, don't linger here! You'll miss the train, you dolt," she stated in mock irritation, though a small smile hid on her face. Kanda grunted in assent, and he began to head towards the train -

Something he saw out of the corner of his eye sparked his mind into a lightning fast mode that seemed to make the world slow. He watched the flash with a mix of fascination, puzzlement, and familiarity when he suddenly realized what was going on, and faster than most humans were allowed to move, he grabbed Ellis around the waist and suddenly hauled her onto the train just as Din loaded his last bag. The black man's eyes widened as he was abruptly handed a rather plump, elderly woman, and Kanda dragged them all into the center of the train car down to the floor. Nthanda wailed, a maddening keening noise as if the world were to come to an end.

"GET DOWN!" he shouted, and the passengers stared in confusion until the sound of gunfire split the air into stripes of frightening noise. People screamed as they ducked down into their seats, bullets punching their way through the metal of the car. A few people very suddenly decomposed to dust in their seats, and Kanda cursed under his breath.

"Stay down," he growled to the two on the floor, and they didn't need to be told twice. Kanda contemplated leaving Nthanda with Din and Ellis, but he immediately nixed the idea, knowing that somehow they'd get separated and he'd be up a creek without a canoe. He made his way up to the front of the car, wondering why the train conductor hadn't already left. However, upon reaching the engine room he got his answer. A Level Three Akuma stared at the controls with a perplexed look, comically scratching the back of its armor plated head as it stared in vexation at the number of switches, levers, and buttons that dotted the control panel.

"The hell do I work this thing?" the Akuma muttered to itself gutturally. Nthanda suddenly let out a loud wail, and the Akuma whipped its head around with a glaring gaze. It immediately slashed at the air with one arm, and Kanda turned, his left side taking the brunt of the attack as his shoulders hunched around his charge in order to protect him. Kanda didn't waste a movement, and in one turn he slid around, using his momentum make a near complete revolution and draw his sword. The sword sliced a thin line diagonally across the armor of the Level Three, and it hissed as the Innocence made contact with the Dark Matter making up its armor. Kanda pushed forwards with his sword, cutting an 'X' deep into the Level Three, and it countered with a swift punch to the face. Kanda felt bones shatter in his cheek, but he managed to get in a single stabbing thrust into the shoulder of the Level Three.

Kanda flew into the back of the car, making a large dent. He hardly had time to register where he was before the Level Three followed up its punch with a deafening blast.

_"What're you waiting for? GET UP! SAVE MY BABY, STUPID ASS! YOU GOT HIM HANGIN' ROUND YOUR NECK! DON'T JUST SIT THERE!"_

Kanda dodged, Nthanda clinging to his chest. Suddenly, he was rethinking leaving Nthanda behind, especially with his mom yelling things in his ear and directions that he didn't need. Things were getting rough. Nthanda suddenly stopped crying, and things slowed down to the speed of molasses. Kanda watched as the Akuma slowly turned towards him, the laser it was using to cut holes into the wall following its gaze. Kanda realized he'd have to block rather than slide under because of the baby strapped to him, and he cursed himself mentally as he raised his sword to deflect it.

"SCREW YOU, EXORCIST!" the Level Three screeched as the beam was redirected into one of the control panels, and the entire thing sparked. They both stared at each other as the train suddenly started moving, and the Level Three started to laugh.

"Mission complete," it growled, but before it could disappear, Kanda stabbed his sword straight through its hand, twisting the sword as it screamed and driving the long, sharp piece of metal into its foot. Pinned, it wriggled and writhed to get off, throwing off shards of light as it bounced off its shiny outer layer, and it cursed him fervently. Kanda glared at it, giving it a swift quick to the head.

"What mission?" Kanda asked, and the Akuma spit oil onto the floor of the train. The corrosive substance sizzled as it hit the floor.

"What are you going to do? Kill me? I'm already dead. Heh, good try getting it out of -"

Suddenly, Nthanda squirmed towards the Akuma, and it attempted to lean away.

"The hell -? Get it away! EUGH! Humans! _Infant _humans! They're even worse than the normal kind!" Kanda frowned, trying to pull back the babe, but Nthanda was set on getting his small hands on the Akuma. Kanda finally shifted the baby to his hip where he couldn't go anywhere, and the baby wailed. Kanda felt his bones begin to reconstruct in his face, and he shoved the Akuma again. It screamed as the metal dug into its hands and foot, and it shrieked, "All right! ALL RIGHT! We're crashing the train, we're crashing the train! JUST KILL ME ALREADY!" Kanda was only too happy to oblige. He was careful not to get the baby bloody.

He walked back to the other cars, spattered and disgusting, with a baby leaned against one hip. Nthanda had stopped wailing, staring up at Kanda with a look that could've been annoyance. Kanda looked down at the infant that was almost glaring at him, and he rolled his eyes.

"Get used to it," Kanda stated. He was careful to step over the mounds of dust in the aisle, passing by stunned passengers and shell shocked train attendants. He handed Nthanda to Ellis almost absentmindedly, and the old woman took him with an astounded and frightened look. She swallowed as she held the child, realizing that she'd probably been inches away from Death, the figure standing next to her in that train station looking over her shoulder as Akuma had come and ripped through. She hated to think about the station they'd left behind, and she realized that they were now going quite fast on the tracks.

"What do we do now? The conductor's probably dead, and we can't contact Johannesburg. They don't know we're coming," she said, her voice sounding like it was far away, down a tunnel. Her ears rang, and her vision swam as Kanda shrugged.

"Hell if I know. Best idea's to stop the train. Of course, that damn Akuma shot up the control panel, so not much we can do there," Kanda answered, his tone clipped and no nonsense. He didn't usually have to think too much whenever he was fighting - it was all instinct and practiced coordination working together so that Kanda didn't have to spend precious seconds consciously thinking in the middle of battle. This, however, was different. They were fighting different enemies: what they didn't know and what they didn't think they could do. That involved some thought and creativity, two things Kanda sorely lacked in all honesty. He wasn't like Bookman Junior with his superior mind and his ability to reason and logic. Kanda had a layman's common sense to him, not the complicated, head-knowledge thought process that some of the other Exorcists possessed. Perhaps that was why Kanda was alive as long as he was. He generally chose the simplest answer, and he stuck with it.

"Dere be a lever, yanno, on the side, a big lever. It's deh brake for deh tren, 'n it should be workin' well or else someone gonna be screwed when we get to Johannesburg," Din stated seriously. Kanda indicated with his head, and they started for the engine of the train. Once there, though, they realized that the lever Din had been talking about was actually no more than a nub now. Kanda suppressed a wince. There was a clean slice all the way through the pipe that had once been the handle to the emergency break, and Kanda had more than likely made a careless swing and it'd been sliced off. Din lifted the heavy lever in his hand, weighing it as he muttered, "Dis bad, dis very, very bad, suh. Can't stop in Johannes, and we be dead within two hours, if we not smash into some oth' tren comin' dis way." Kanda tapped his sheath next to his leg, wondering what they could do. The landscape outside was passing by pretty fast, and one of the few gauges that worked happened to be a speedometer.

They were only going at about seventeen miles power, but they'd pick up speed as their momentum kept them going. Kanda looked into the engine of the train, realizing that they could actually starve the train of coal for a while, but that was a gamble on how long it'd take the train to come to a complete stop. They weren't going that fast...

"Get everybody off the train. We're going slow enough that if they jump now, it won't hurt too bad," Kanda stated. Din looked at the Japanese man skeptically, but he never the less went to the passenger cars to announce that they were going to have an emergency unload. Kanda thought about what the Akuma had said about their plans. It'd been a good plan, if it'd worked. Crash a train full of people. Get brownie points for leveling up. It was almost too easy. Still, the Akuma couldn't have thought that the train would just crash off the rails or smash into a building when it got to Johannesburg. There was only enough track, after all.

And then, Kanda realized what was going on. He looked at the train map and schedule in front of him. He traced the ideal route they'd have gone if the train had left on time, and then he looked at the Johannesburg map and schedule. At the moment, it was only eight forty five, if the clock inside of the engine had anything to say, so they'd left nearly an hour and a half early. There was supposed to be a delay because another train, the eight-ten train out of Johannesburg _was using the same track_. Kanda did some quick math in his head. It took nearly five hours for him to get from Johannesburg to East London. They were going at about twenty miles per hour now. He knew that they still had lots of time, but that meant lots of time to pick up momentum, and at some point the two would meet and neither would be able to stop in time once they saw each other coming.

Trees flashed past at a fast rate, and Kanda heard the sound of screaming as people jumped from the passenger cars to the ground outside. He winced as he heard a body smack a tree, and he figured some unlucky individual had just become very familiar with the plant life in South Africa. The answer to this problem should've been easy - get everyone off the train. Leave the train to crash into the other train. Walk all the way to Johannesburg. Yet, there was that inkling in him that wondered if he really was that low to let another train full of people die just because it would be inconvenient to save them.

He remembered a time when the _other _him had a choice like this. There had been a wagon stuck in a river, and his sister was in it (he had a sister? He'd never thought he had siblings) while another wagon also was mired and quickly sinking. Torn between the two, he remembered the panic and the indecision that had accosted him. That man had chosen to save his sister's wagon, the easier of the two with the most interest to him, and he'd watched as the people in the second wagon sank and suffocated as they were sucked into the mud. There'd been this feeling of guilt, one that Kanda didn't usually feel towards people he didn't know. He grumbled under his breath, and he stalled on the decision, forcing his way back into the passenger cars. A good number of them were already empty, and Din was helping one more lady out of the car. A man ran along side the train as fast as he could manage (which wasn't very fast), and Din shoved the woman out the door. She toppled the man waiting for her, and they fell on the ground in a heap, the train passing them by.

"Dere be two more, me and Missuz Ellis. Oh, 'n the babe, too. You kin stop the tren?" Din asked, the black man's face unusually somber. His splinted arm looked like it'd been broken over again, the way he was holding it, and Kanda looked away. He'd probably done that, but no matter. It'd probably saved the man's life. And the Finder probably knew it, too.

"Yeah. I can," Kanda stated tersely. Ellis suddenly appeared, and she said, "That's all the children and their mothers. That leaves the three of us and Nthanda. It'll be a long walk all the way to Johannesburg, and I don't think we'll make it for quite the long while, but we'll make it. I worry what it will do to the mothers and children, though the men look capable enough to carry them. Ellis shifted Nthanda, who was wailing again. She looked frazzled and out of sorts, not at all the prim and proper persona Kanda was used to seeing, though he'd only known her two days. Still, she exuded an air of command, and Kanda felt that it both grated on him and soothed him that someone else had an idea of what they were doing.

"Get off, and I'll stop the thing. It won't be pretty when it happens, though," Kanda stated. Din's eyes widened, and he began to usher a confused Ellis towards the exit of the train.

"What do you mean, won't be pretty? What are you planning to do? Kanda!" Din wrapped his arm around the old woman's waist, and he jumped to the ground with her in tow, Nthanda watching Kanda over her shoulder with large, doleful eyes.

_"Are you thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?" _Kanda didn't answer. He'd wait until they were farther away from the crowd. No use scaring the living shit out of them. No one wanted to see a guy with broken arms and legs regenerate. It was a messy and gruesome spectacle, and Nthanda had already had enough death and despair in the past few days.

"Why am I even doing this?" Kanda muttered to himself as he headed towards the front of the train. It made no sense to him that he was risking _his _life for someone else's. Maybe it was the fact that the people who were on the other train were just victims of circumstance. Maybe it was dredges of honor left over from his past life as a fighter. Maybe he was just being _nice _for once. Maybe he had gas. He didn't know.

He kicked open the door leading out of the engine room, and he stared at the fast moving ground below. Nothing he couldn't handle. He jumped and rolled, standing back up in one fluid motion. He watched the train begin to pass, and he started running. Before long, he was going _faster _than the train, passing the engine as he pumped his arms and legs. He could see ahead that there was a break in the trees, a long tract of just brown, flat land. That would be good for what he was planning. He ran faster, edging neck and neck with the very tip of the large, steam engine, and before long he was about fifty yards ahead of the train. He figured he'd need another one hundred yards of space, just in case, and he ran a bit longer before finding a good spot on the tracks.

He shook off his jitters, and he stepped onto the railroad tracks. Far, far, far down the track he could see small dots, the passengers, milling around, no doubt being bossed around by Ellis. He sighed, knowing that at least those passengers were in good hands, or at least wrinkled, experienced, old hands that smelled like too much soap. He watched the train come with a groan of resignation. He didn't want to do this. He hated regenerating when he didn't have to. There were so many other things he could be using that energy for, like... like butchering a hagfish, or beating up Akuma using toothpicks or something.

He leaned forwards, one foot in front of the other with his body turned to the side. His shoulder would take the brunt of the impact, and then the rest of him would stop the train. Hopefully. He wasn't entirely sure, but he knew that if he was wrong, he'd hurt a lot when he woke up, regardless of a healing factor or not.

The adage 'hit him like a train' never really registered too much to him. Now... it was a different story.

_"Damn, you really are crazy."_

The train slammed into him at a full twenty five miles per hour. Though the train itself was not going fast, it was a couple hundred tons of metal with enough momentum to shove over an elephant or two. Any normal human would've been thrown underneath the train tracks, chewed up in the wheels, and dead within a matter of minutes. Kanda, of course, was not a normal human. The wooden boards cracked and broke under his heels, the bones in his feet breaking with disgusting popping noises. He could hear his spine actually snap in half, his shoulder collapsing under the weight of the train. His legs lasted quite a bit longer, nearly an entire minute as the wheels of the train screeched against the force of the lone man attempting to stop this hulking machine. At long last, under great strain, his knees began to buckle, and his femurs split as both of his tibias began to fracture.

The train began to slow, and finally, at long last, Kanda fell to the side and blacked out.

Only to wake up several minutes later with a massive pain in his head, piercing agony in his thighs, a hot iron inside of his back, and an electrical wire running red hot through his shoulder. He could actually feel the bones beginning to knit themselves back together. Blood was being pumped out at a rapid rate through his system as the blood that had leaked from the broken blood vessels and veins was redirected and scrubbed out of his body. Voices reached his ears, and he opened his eyes to a blue sky. He groaned as he stood up on shaky legs, the bones in his legs still not fully reconstructed. He saw that there were holes in his pants and blood around the gaps, and he tried not to think too hard on what they were doing there.

"I see you made it out all right," a voice stated, and Kanda turned stiffly to look at Ellis. She stared at him with blatant amazement before staring at the train. Nthanda stared at him with a blatant stare that almost seemed to say with a cold, hard tone "I know everything, and I know what you are." He averted his eyes from the child to look at Ellis, who was staring at the train. Kanda himself turned back around, and he raised his eyebrows in a bit of surprise. Huh, the train really had come to a full stop only a couple of meters away from where he'd fallen away from the track.

"Yeah," Kanda answered in a far off tone. He looked back down the track, and he said, "Where's everyone else?" Ellis sighed, and she stated, "Well, some decided it'd be better just to walk back to town rather than try to make it to Johannesburg. It's too far for a lot of them, and it's faster just to walk back to East London. I myself am going to go with them." Kanda nodded, and he walked back towards the main group. He hoped that the train that was headed their way would have the sense to realize something was wrong when they see a train stopped on the tracks.

"How did you stop that train? I... I saw you stand there, and that was all. You fell away, and something strange happened..." Ellis said, her voice weak and wavering. Kanda didn't look at her.

"I stopped it. That's all," he stated with a matter of fact tone that brooked no argument. Even Ellis kept her nose out of it. She handed Nthanda back to Kanda, and the baby automatically wound his hands in the man's hair. Kanda winced as Nthanda pull on the strands, but at the same time it was strangely familiar by now to feel his hair wrapped around a pudgy hand. Kanda realized that all this time he'd managed to keep on his messenger bag full of baby products, and he opened it, finding a water bottle. He handed it to Nthanda, and the boy drank gratefully as he eyed the others around him with dark, piercing eyes.

"I'm going to keep going towards Johannesburg," Kanda stated. "It'll be days before another train can get from East London to Johannesburg. It'll be easier if I just run there. I'm a lot faster than a train." Ellis frowned, and she asked, "And what about Din?" Kanda looked over her head to the lone Finder standing out like a black speck in tan attire against the white gentry in their dresses and suits.

"He needs his rest anyways. I'll call when I get to Johannesburg. He can suck it up. He'll only slow me down," Kanda stated flatly, and Ellis raised an eyebrow.

"You don't know what tribe he's from, do you? He's from one of the little known tribes out in the Sahara, trained to be able to run for days at a time. He was hired by the Church after he left his tribe for a job in Johannesburg in order to help pay for his mother's medical bills. The doctors are horribly expensive," Ellis said, and Kanda gave her a look.

"How'd you learn all this?"

"He told me. We got to talking while you were off scouting the train station. You should really learn more about your work partners, dear, it does wonders," Ellis said with a slightly smug look on her face, and Kanda had the urge to retaliate, though he wasn't sure how. He decided to go with his usual response, a sharp 'tch', and he walked faster despite the pain in his legs.

"This was a disaster waiting to happen," he muttered under his breath as he finally caught up to Din. It was going to be a long day, walking.

"Din. Din! Where are you going? We're still going to Johannesburg, idiot!"

* * *

><p>It turned out that Kanda and Din didn't have to run for long, though that was not to say that the run was not tiring, especially seeing as Nthanda was tied in a scarf slung across Kanda's chest. The train heading towards East London eventually headed towards them at around noon during the hottest part of the day. After seeing that there happened to be a very large obstacle on the tracks, the conductors decided to literally turn the train around by putting it in backwards after using a wiring panel to send a line down to the much more sophisticated Johannesburg station.<p>

"How did the train stop? Is it still headed this way?" the conductor asked, and Kanda quickly answered before Din could say anything, "Emergency brake. It's stopped." Nthanda only watched the proceedings with his dark eyes, not even bothering to wail. He buried his face into Kanda's shirt as night began to fall over them. After nearly three hours of riding, they reached Johannesburg, but the streets were lively at night and both Din and Kanda felt nervous being in such a big, urban place with a young child so late at night.

"Deh babe..."

"Yeah, I know. We'll find a place to stay."

They managed to locate the church after a bit of difficulty, and a nice, passing prostitute actually pointed them the right way.

"It's nice 'n all to see a man with a babe nowadays. Can't find a good father, y'know? Jus' can't find good fathers, ain't worth it," the woman had said, cooing at Nthanda. She smoked her cigarette, and they went on their way. The church, however, was closed this time of night, and they were back right where they'd started.

"This is a problem," Kanda stated, shifting an uncomfortable Nthanda who started to cry. The stench of the streets was overpowering, and no doubt it bothered both the sensitive baby and the sense-heightened samurai. Din, however, didn't appear as fazed, and he stated, "Best be gettin' ourselves some room. Deh babe, ya change his diaper any? Gon' get diaper rash." Kanda's eye twitched. The ghostly voice that'd been following him around had nagged at him for the past five hours about feeding, changing, and watering the baby. He was getting sick of her constant needling, and he wished there was something corporeal for him to shove or intimidate. Still, it'd kept Nthanda from crying and screaming, so for that he was at least a bit grateful.

"I checked him an hour ago," Kanda stated wearily. He'd never felt this tired on a trip. He'd done lots of things in his life that should be more tiring than this, like hiking up a mountain with a massive pack on his back, fighting off Akuma every single hour, even walking straight through a river in the middle of the night to escape detection, and yet he was absolutely exhausted from taking care of this baby and walking around. His back hurt. His legs hurt. His feet hurt. _All _of him hurt. He just wanted to go home and go to bed.

"Check 'im again. Nevuh know, sometime they go 'n you don't figure it out til later. 'Specially not in this stink," Din stated, shoving a pile of manure gingerly with his shoe. Ah, so he could smell it. Kanda sniffed, irritated. His enhanced senses didn't appreciate the wall of disgusting that was assaulting his olfactory organs. Instinctively, he gently pressed Nthanda's face into his shirt, drawing the scarf over his head. Kanda looked down at the baby, and he realized that Nthanda had actually fallen asleep.

_"Poor baby, all tuckered out. It ain't fair ya gotta be goin' crazy everywhere." _Kanda felt like mentioning that the poor man holding the baby happened to be tuckered out, too, and he didn't see her giving him any sympathy or favors for carting him around, but he kept his tongue. It wouldn't do them any good, especially seeing as it would help if Din didn't think Kanda was actually crazy. Still, there was a nagging feeling in the back of his mind.

He remembered when he'd be left out in the rain as a kid... well, as a kid when he'd been his other self, before. He remembered being panicky and scared, but eventually finding somewhere to stay. That feeling still lingered like the bitter aftertaste of blood or coffee, and he shook off the remembered moment. He sighed, and he said, "Come on. We'll get there in the morning. We'll camp out at the door." Kanda sat down in the doorway of the church, leaned up against the door and the wall butting against the door. Din shrugged, taking up the same position opposite Kanda on the other side of the door.

After only a few moments, Kanda looked back over to Din. The man was already asleep, and Kanda felt a spur of envy that the man could so easily find rest. For Kanda, it was different. Most had no idea that Kanda spent entire nights awake sometimes. He was afraid of going to sleep a lot of the time. There were things in his mind that he left unconscious, making sure that they remained buried in his waking world, but when he slept... when he slept, it was as if they came alive and grew flesh and walked. He didn't ever remember them in the morning, but he remembered his body being tense and his mind unsettled. Those things scared him, because he didn't know what those unconscious things were. He hated those things he did not know, because they were a threat he could not attack as everything else that was physical and just _here. _

Kanda looked down in his lap, drawing his knees up to cradle Nthanda. The baby was asleep sounding, his face strangely smooth and innocent in sleep, so unlike the jaded face Kanda knew when the baby was awake. Kanda figured that if ever he had been a babe, his face would've looked as that, suspicious and distrustful despite its youth. Suddenly, he felt a strange sense of defensiveness for the babe. He never wanted anyone to go through the same hardship he himself had suffered. It was a strange sensation, but he knew it as clearly as he knew his name and his sword. It was a simple truth. It was just, he'd never been able to apply it to people, but here and now he had a life that he could actually influence and shape, if for just a small amount of time, possibly even _change. _

He stopped himself suddenly. What was he thinking? These alien thoughts... they suddenly perplexed him, though that simple truth continued to linger. Why was he thinking those things? What did it matter to him what happened to this child? He took a deep breath, leaning his head back and resting it against the stone of the church's alcove. The stars above were nearly blotted out by the city's bright streetlamps, and Kanda eyed the familiar constellations. As one of Tiedoll's students, he'd had to learn all the names of the constellations and their locations, if only from overhearing Tiedoll and Daisya chatter on about the stories that revolved around them as they revolved around the planet.

Slowly, he started to drift, watching streetcars go by and men with prostitutes on both arms and night workers and drunkards and lights flicker on and off, just watching life go on, only watching life go on without him as he realized that this was what happened every day and despite this, he'd never be a part of it, could never be a part of it as he was, so strange and foreign and inhuman and just plain wrong and against nature...

His mind rambled as he finally fell asleep, his introspective thoughts coming to a close as his eyes drooped and his body relaxed against the door of the church, where a stunned priest would find them and give them a blanket and leave them for a few hours before waking them, just for mercy's sake, as mercy was God's gift, oh yes, mercy was God's gift. Small mercies were God's gift.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **-gasps- OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG! So many new reviews! :'D Only two chapters later, and twelve reviews! So amazing!

Anyhow, now that my writer's fansquee is finished, I'd like to thank all those people who reviewed my story: those being, of course, Solicide, Tysunkete, kaillinne arami, EXO718, Kaichan94, Alyssa12334 and karina001. For those souls who subscribe, I'd like to give a big thanks to kailline arami and Kaichan94. To those people who favorite the stories instead, I want to give recognition to xx-Snow White Sorrow-xx, Soli, RavenLadySerena, Alyssa12334, kaillinne arami, axellover2, and Kaichan94. I love all you guys! I'm very happy with the fact you guys are out there reading this, and I hope you guys keep on enjoying these stories.

As I've said before, Chasing After The Wind is a story that's on the same timeline as this story as part of a series of DGM multichapter 'light novels' I've got going. If you liked this one, hopefully you might take a crack at that one, too.

Ah, questions, questions. I greatly appreciate all of your suggestions for the problems about babies. Those are all good suggestions, and I'm putting them in my 'let's see how many ways we can torture Kanda with a baby' box. Now, let's see what problems you guys can come up about what happens on the road? What do you think would be dangers that can occur on a transcontinental trip across Africa? How bad could it get? How do you like Kanda's inner monologues? Is he being kept in character? Are you all curious as to what Nthanda actually does?

God bless and happy reading. And don't forget to stay away from burnt cabbage (courtesy of Angela the Witch, if anyone gets the reference).

-Doctor Yok


	4. Bazaar In G Minor

It was a busy day in the marketplace. The heat pounded down from the African sun like a pestle on chilies in a mortar. It baked everything to a fine crust, even seeming to turn the people flaky, dry, and brittle. Despite their fragile appearance, however, these people barked out orders and prices, haggling and selling with a fine-tuned ear that could only come from years and years of practice. The marketplace was full of sounds and voices, from frying food to vendors hawking their wares, to young mothers shouting for their children who were laughing as they delighted in new toys.

Kanda waded through them all, trying to find a spot, any spot, to get out of the sun. However, shade was as precious as gold and silver. Every single patch of shade he saw was occupied by those smart people who'd come early to take those places they knew would shield them from the unforgiving rays of the sun.

"Kanda! Kanda, I got sohmethin' for yah!" Din shouted, making his way towards the Japanese Exorcist. They'd stayed nearly two weeks in Johannesburg. The church had let them stay in the spare rooms they kept for travelers who'd fallen on hard times or unfortunate circumstances. Both Din and Kanda had been told to wait with Nthanda in Johannesburg for the moment, and that special preparations were being made to move them up north to Cairo. They'd hoped to go by rail, but from what Kanda knew, the church probably had planned some sort of cheaper roundabout way of getting them to Egypt. He wasn't very enthusiastic about the thought of trekking across desert, jungle, and civil unrest, especially with a baby slung around his chest.

Speaking of the baby, he had grown accustomed to Kanda's presence. So much so, in fact, that Kanda no longer could put him down without the child wailing as if someone were trying to kill him. This posed a problem when Kanda needed to do such human things as go to the bathroom, eat, and bathe. Even in his sleep, Nthanda could tell when he was in Kanda's presence or not, and despite the child's sullen facial expression when held by the swordsman, being separated from him induced so much panic Kanda actually began to fear for the child's welfare.

"What is it?" Kanda asked. His voice was crisp and clear, though carrying a slight accent. Nthanda clung to Kanda's white button-up shirt, little hands wrapped in the white cloth. Kanda's face was bright against the white, clean shirt, and he looked much better than he had been. The three days of wear and tear had brought him down and tired him out to the point where he nearly slept the entire day away the first day at the church. He was in much better condition now, and he was slowly beginning to adjust to life in Africa, from the busy, crazy roads to the bizarre foods and hectic markets.

"Here, some sandvichehs, a cohple a' yams, mehbe sohme milk, a few tarts in there sohmewhere. How long we s'posed to wait here?" Din asked as he chewed on a ham and mayonnaise sandwich he'd picked up from the French vendor at the end of the road. Nthanda made gurgling noises, and Kanda shifted Nthanda to his other arm as he answered, "I don't know. They just told us to wait here today. They said they'd get here between three and four. It's four thirty already." _Count on Central to be late, _he thought to himself as he dug around in a satchel full of baby supplies that Ellis had given him before they'd parted ways. He pulled out a small, green-glass bottle of cold water he'd stuck in the ice chest overnight in the kitchen of the church. It was already melted all the way through. Kanda sighed. There had to be a better way to keep the water cold.

He'd received instructions, at last, to go the government buildings in Market Square and wait there for CROW members to meet him as an escort group up to Cairo. However, they'd been there for the past three hours, and Kanda had yet to see any CROW members at all. He sighed to himself, grumbling to himself. He was sick of this heat, he was sick of this trip, he was sick of carrying around this baby everywhere -

Suddenly, Nthanda looked up at him with a strange expression, one that Kanda could've equated with hurt if babies could hurt that way, and Kanda looked down him. The child's hands were clinging to his neck, and Nthanda withdraw his hands from Kanda. The swordsman hadn't even noticed the unnatural heat radiating off the child, he'd gotten so used to him, but now he felt strangely cold as the baby squirmed away from him.

"H-hey! Stop that!" Kanda shouted as Nthanda squirmed to get out of his arms. What was with him! First, he won't let go, and now he won't do anything but? Din caught Nthanda just as he'd gotten free of Kanda's hold, and the little dark baby clung to Din with a fervor that stunned Kanda. He suddenly felt strangely... like something was missing. It was as if a part of him had been removed. He'd become so accustomed the kid that without him hanging on his chest in the sling, it felt as if there was some extension of him cut off. It left him feeling oddly numbed, a limb that was cut off and then the stump frozen.

"Whoa! Here, li'l ohne. You so lively t'day, Nthanda, wha's a mattah witchu?" Din laughed as Nthanda looked over one dark shoulder to stare at Kanda with a dark expression. Kanda crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow at the baby. He couldn't seriously be miffed about something could he? Could babies even get miffed?

They wandered the market, eating and searching for shade. At last, they managed to find an upper floor cafe with an awning that was currently unoccupied and had a sympathetic owner. Kanda overlooked the market with a sigh. It'd been an hour since the CROW should've arrived. He didn't know what had happened to them, but apparently it hadn't been good or else they wouldn't be late. Nthanda still gave Kanda the cold shoulder, and Kanda didn't mind. He could finally go and pee without standing there holding a baby off to the side.

After staying at the cafe for nearly another hour, the sun began to dip towards the western side. Kanda knew it was time to leave. The CROW weren't coming today. Something was going on. Maybe their train was delayed. He got up, leading Din and Nthanda down to the still-bustling market street. Vendors were still selling their wares - they'd continue until about thirty minutes before sundown. He heard the sound of small children laughing and playing as well as some flute music, and several children flashed past him in a blur of dark skin and pale reed toys. He watched them go with a look of peculiarity.

For just a moment, he'd felt something. It was a feeling of dejavu, a mere split second of something he remembered but had fled the minute he'd attempted to grasp it. He shook his head as if to dislodge the feeling. Still, it lingered, again that sensation of coffee or blood, a strong mental aftertaste that wouldn't fade or disappear.

"Heh, he likes deh moozihk, Kanda. Ent that just the strengest ting?" Din laughed, swaying back and forth with the music that a local instrument maker was playing. Nthanda seemed fascinated and enthralled by the sounds of the drum and the playing of the flute. Kanda glanced back and forth between Nthanda and the man with the instruments. He wondered... The child had never had a toy, as far as Kanda knew. Surely everything he'd had was destroyed when his entire building had fallen. Kanda himself had never held much stock in toys, but he did remember having one, a secret one, when he was in the Order.

It'd been a small thing, practically useless to him. He'd never kept it. It was a small fishing pole made of broken bamboo and a piece of spare string with a fish tied to the end of it. He'd hid that little toy. Only Alma was allowed to see it, because if he shared it with anyone else they'd either take it or break it. His world had been so small those first few months. It exploded as he got older, learned to read, realized that the toy was a childish thing that was no more than trash. But... he remembered that fondness for it.

On impulse, he walked over to the man with the instruments. Din frowned as he followed behind with Nthanda squirming in his arms and beginning to cry again out of spite and annoyance. The man looked up at Kanda with a look of surprise. He hadn't gotten a customer for the past hour, not so much a rarity in itself. Times were tough, and there were more important things to buy than these pretty noise makers, but it was what he was good at and he did it well.

Kanda pointed to small, portable drum. It was just the size for a toddler with chubby, clumsy hands to smack and hit and laugh at.

"How much?" Kanda asked in English, hoping that the man knew enough to understand him. He looked like a jungle man, the type that came down from the outer reaches of the wilderness to make a living in this different world of men in their suits and women in their pantaloons and hoop skirts. He adjusted his headdress, and he coughed into his fist in surprise.

He said something in a language Kanda didn't quite catch, but Din seemed to understand the gist better than Kanda did.

"He say that cost 'bout fifteen shilling, mehbe two more," Din said. He looked skeptical. The man was trying to get more of them than that drum was worth. It couldn't be more than ten shillings. Most definitely not a third of a pound! That was absurd!

And yet, Kanda paid it without further conflict or haggling. Din frowned, about to say something, but there was something in Kanda's eyes this time, something he wasn't quite sure how to place. It wasn't pity - no, Kanda had no room for pity or sorry feelings for another person's plight. It wasn't mere laziness, either - Kanda wasn't one to give up so easily if he was truly against it. No, what he saw in the other man's eyes was something like a mix of respect and familiarity.

Din was close. Kanda could recognize this man was struggling to keep his way of life without letting go of the fast moving world moving ahead of him. He was here, selling for these whites and their children as well as the poor black men and the few better off blacks as well. Yet, he managed to keep his heritage, here in his music, his trade, his home. He didn't give up his entirety to the world around him, saving something for himself. Kanda knew that he himself had given up his heritage at some point, let the white, Western world overtake him and swallow him up. It hadn't been in this life - he'd never known anything else but the European way of doing things. No, it had been in his last life, the one that followed him in a shadow, without definition and cast by the light of the life lived now. He'd been Japanese, that was true - in this life, though, he was almost purely a mix of European and Chinese cultures, swirled together until he couldn't tell where one started and the other left off.

So he decided it was only right to accept the other man's offer for fifteen shillings. Knowing this place, it'd keep him well stocked on food and transport for the next week or so, depending on the severity of the bombings, the unrest, and the willingness of others to do business. The man smiled, a toothy grin that was missing a few teeth, and looking all the funnier for it. Kanda felt something stir at that jack-o-lantern grin, something he hadn't expected. It wasn't pride. He knew pride too well. This was something much softer and warmer than pride. He'd felt it before - letting that girl touch his hair, saving Allen and Lavi when the two idiots got into a fix, helping Lenalee with her nightmares. He wasn't used to such a profound feeling from strangers.

The man handed Kanda the drum as Kanda handed over the shillings. They glinted in the fading sunlight, and Kanda straightened up, handing Nthanda the drum with an almost careless hand. Of course, nothing Kanda did was ever truly careless, and Nthanda caught the drum with a look of near-smugness at the fact he'd managed to catch the instrument. Kanda nearly let loose a small, shadowed smile. Nthanda banged away on the drum, holding it in one hand while he smashed his other hand into it.

And, for the first time since Kanda had taken the babe from the orphanage nearly a month ago, Nthanda laughed.

He found that he actually liked the sound. It was bubbly and filled the air with substance. Even with the rest of the market going on around them, he could hear Nthanda's high-pitched, little laugh like a gunshot on a cold, quiet night. Kanda took one long, spindly finger and tapped it against Nthanda's drum. Nthanda looked up in surprise, and Nthanda's face nearly went back to being the somber, miffed look he'd had half-the-day-long. However, the enticement of playing with another was too much to resist, and for every one of Kanda's thumps on the drum, he added two more sloppy, arrhythmic hits.

"He really like dat, y'know," Din said, handing Nthanda over to Kanda. At first, Kanda felt a pang of disappointment - he knew that Nthanda would squirm away. However, this time, Nthanda allowed himself to be transferred from man to man, and Kanda held him gingerly as if he'd disappear any moment. He felt oddly sick, as if this strange influx of emotions all at once were making him dizzy. He wasn't used to this sort of emotional turmoil. Everything was in black and white to him, and gray made his head spin.

They walked through the market place back towards the church as the sun began to set and the out-of-town vendors began to leave for the night. As they walked down the street, however, Kanda saw a drum, a much bigger version of the one Nthanda currently slept with in his sling. When they passed by, he gave a few almost playful raps to it, and suddenly he was grabbed by his wrist by a dark man.

He quelled the immediate reaction to punch the man, break his wrist, and take a fighting stance. The man didn't mean harm - his grip was too loose, his face too open, his grin too wide. He motioned to the drum, and he realized that the drum was a part of a band. Was this some sort of joke?

"Ha! Ya goht caught, Mistuh Kanda! They lohve seein' deh white man try 'n play deh drum while dey play. Go, go on. It not hurt anythin', 'n we not goin' nohwhere for 'while," Din said, shooing Kanda towards the band of men readying their instruments. Several of the street vendors and shoppers began to gather around in curiosity as to what the band was doing, and those that were experienced in the ways of the market place already knew what was going to happen and waited with much glee. Kanda found himself in the center of the spotlight, so to say, as the band struck up a tune, playing with several flutes, drums, and other instruments.

Kanda cautiously felt for a beat. Nthanda woke up at the sound of such concentrated noise, and he waved his arms towards the drum. Kanda's hands hovered over it curiously, almost tentatively as he tried to catch up with the rest of the sound that the band was putting out. Finally, he found a place to come in, and he made a hesitant rhythm on the drum. He began to actually play, then, feeling for the rhythm in the music the same way he found rhythm in a fight, using more than just his ears, but his body as well.

He found himself entranced by the music that was being played and the drumbeats he was turning into actual music. He was actually... enjoying himself? This thought threw him off beat, and the crowd groaned as Kanda quit playing all of a sudden. They'd actually been cheering on the man who was surprisingly good at playing the drum and following the beat, much better than the last white man, who'd just hammered at the drum willy-nilly without a thought to rhythm and cadence. Nthanda slapped the drum as the band quit, a single lone beat repeating over and over. The leader of the band smiled at the little boy playing with the drum, and he said in faintly accented English, "You're good, man. Never thought we'd find someone in a crowd who plays the drum like that. You're rough, but you know what you're doing." Kanda blinked. He hadn't expected anyone to comment on the drumming. This was a strange anomaly.

This entire _day _was an anomaly. He sighed to himself and muttered, "Thanks." The crowd began to disperse as the impromptu band looked for their next victim. Din hurried over with a wide grin on his face, and he said, "I din' know ya played deh drums." Kanda frowned as he looked back.

"That's the weird part - I don't play drums. I don't play anything at all." He remembered taking violin lessons for a while - until he'd gotten frustrated at the notes and broke the violin. The Chinese Science Branch decided that musical enrichment wasn't the best course of action and turned him to something more productive - sword fighting lessons.

That entire time, Nthanda had kept a hold of Kanda's hair or his neck, standing in his sling. He held his drum in his other arm as he hung on to Kanda with his free hand. Nthanda watched the band leave with a pang of sadness that only a baby could feel - a lingering, but not strong, feeling of loss that dissipated slowly. He liked those drums. He really had. Nthanda felt tired, suddenly, and he settled back against Kanda's chest in his sling, making himself comfortable as he curled himself around his drum. Kanda patted the bundle that was falling asleep at his chest, and they began, once more, towards the church.

"Wait! WAIT! KANDA, DIN!" The two spun around, one with his hand on his sword hilt and the other with a hand over his knife on his belt. They realized that there was nothing to fear when, out of the crowd, Ellis trotted with a red and puffed face from running in pantaloons and several layers of skirt. They walked towards her quickly as she leaned against a pole to catch her breath.

"What are you doing here?" Kanda asked in confusion. She was supposed to be back in East London. Why did she -

"I'm... here to... help as an... escort... CROW members were... delayed by a bombing... two dead, one still alive. She's on her way here right now, and she's somewhere in the marketplace. Central contacted me, and they told me - " Her face blanched, and she licked her lips as she weighed her words carefully.

"- to help you at all costs. I'm the only other Central member in this nick of the woods, so I decided I'd better do my part," she said, and Kanda could tell she wasn't giving them the entire truth. However, she also looked like she was about to have a heartattack right there on the steps of the government plaza, so he let it go. He'd get the truth eventually.

"Is that why they were late?" Kanda wondered to himself, and Ellis rolled her eyes. She gave him a playful snap to the head with her hand, and she stated, "Yes, my dear bunglehead, _that _is the reason they are late." Kanda found himself surprised at the soft hit to the head. That woman had guts. If anyone else had done that, he would've probably shoved them over, but seeing as Ellis was an old woman... He shook his head infinitesimally. He'd never cared about age when it came to that sort of thing. What was going on with him?

"Where are you staying?" Ellis asked, brushing back a strand of graying brown hair. She adjusted her glasses on her lined face, surveying the two men. They looked fairly cleaned up, if a bit rumpled. Nthanda looked much healthier now. He was much plumper than he'd been when Kanda had first picked him up, and his skin was a shiny dark ebony, so dark he was almost a pure black. The circle in the middle of his chest glinted in the light of the setting sun, turning the burnished metal into a reddened gold color. It winked at her as Kanda turned to look over his shoulder at something that had caught his attention.

And suddenly, Kanda had caught a harpoon, the tip only three inches from Ellis' nose. She stood there, completely in shock, for a few moments as Kanda ripped the barbed rod from his hand. The flesh steamed and slowly, right before her eyes, grew right back into place as if nothing had happened.

Ellis put a hand over her heart as she backed up, realizing what was happening. She grabbed Din, and she began to drag him underneath an alcove as people began to scream.

"Akuma?" Din breathed.

"What else?" Ellis grumbled sarcastically. "Unless you know some stranger who enjoys shooting harpoons into crowds at random." They watched and waited, their eyes anxious as several people screamed in pain. One of the men from the band leaned against a wall with a steaming harpoon in his arm. Kanda, amidst all the chaos, stared up at the sky with a nonchalant gaze as if this were an unexpected rain rather than poisoned harpoons. Faster than they could see, his sword sliced straight through a harpoon headed towards two people behind him. Each of the separate pieces made their own way into the ground around the three people, the two behind Kanda cowering as they ran for cover.

An Akuma hovered over one of the buildings, wielding a massive harpoon gun. Kanda sighed to himself. He hated the ones that had big ammunition. At least there weren't -

RATATATATATATATATATATATATATA-

-machine guns.

He hated machine guns. Machine guns _hurt. _It was like being stung by bees a thousand times over in quick succession. It was _survivable _(at least, in Kanda's case), but he preferred not having to deal with them. The Akuma screeched its maniacal glee, and Kanda groaned. He hated the ones that laughed and screamed the entire time. Only Level Ones were quiet enough for him, even if they had Gatlings attached to them.

He climbed a building with ease, and Nthanda woke up in confusion. The baby started to grumble, almost, making noises of annoyance at having his nap suddenly interrupted. The baby poked his head out, and Kanda quickly pushed the baby's head back into its sling as a bullet ripped a hole in the flesh where it had just been previously. Kanda grunted as the impact sliced through several organs, but it wasn't long before the long bullet forced its way back out. He deflected the rest of the bullets with intense precision, keeping the Akuma busy. It was rare to only find one, but then again, this Level Two could've eaten the other Akuma in the area in order to keep the humans to itself.

Finally, at last, Kanda managed to get near enough to give a good slice towards the Akuma, but it blocked with the harpoon gun, giving another barrage of shots. It was very tall, with spindly legs and a pack of harpoons on its back. The machine gun was attached to its wrist, thicker than the entirety of the arm. Its face was that of a lizard, long teeth and dry eyes that stared. Its mask was on the back of its head. Kanda suddenly wondered who this person would've been if they'd never been turned into an Akuma by the person they'd called back to the world of the living. He knew that Allen could see the souls -

Suddenly, Kanda was shoved backwards by another hail of bullets. His mind had been too occupied. He looked down, making sure the baby was safe. Nthanda was more than safe. The kid was leaning up out of his sling, refusing to say still. Miraculously, the baby hadn't been touched by the bullets.

"Stay down," Kanda growled, though it was more an action of habit than any actual merit. The baby couldn't understand him -

Nthanda, who had been holding on to Kanda's hair, ducked back inside the sling. Kanda blinked... and then he began circling the monster that was waiting for him.

"Exxxxorccisssssst," it breathed, drooling on the tiles of the roof below it. The two accessed each other before the fight really began in earnest.

Kanda ducked underneath another barrage of ammunition, racing forwards as the monster was occupied with shooting at him. He brought his sword underneath himself to the side, aiming a long, upwards slash at the gun. The end of the gun fell away, and Kanda thought he had victory, just another slash, another slash towards the head to finish it off -

Kanda suddenly found himself with a harpoon aimed at his chest where Nthanda was bundled, and his eyes widened. A flash of sudden and deliberate fear overtook him, one he had not been prepared for. As if at a standstill, they remained for all of two seconds, the impasse growing in gravity within Kanda's mind as he realized that, though he would live, Nthanda would most certainly die once the harpoon was sent out of that gun. It would pierce through his small body, ending his life in mere seconds.

He had no choice. It would happen in seconds. His mind blurred for an alternative, but he couldn't move away - could he? He could forgo victory, let it get away at the gain of keeping Nthanda... or he could take out this menace, leaving the child to die.

And then the world, all of a sudden, changed in a blur.

Kanda's eyes widened as he realized he was in a strange world of cold, dark blankness. The world had shrunk to a pinpoint of light in a second, and he was now only in a strange, other place, a place he knew he shouldn't occupy, one he knew in his very _being _that was impossible and not of his nature. He shivered as he watched things pass him by - impossible things, things like flying machines, massive mushroom clouds sprouting from a decimated ruin, strange devices and inventions, all sorts of things. And then, he saw things from before, things he knew no one could comprehend. He saw a strange race, a race of humans that looked so different yet were the same as the present day people walking the streets. They were dressed strangely, and they talked strangely, but the instances were short.

And then, like a clap of thunder in his ear, he was back in the world he knew. Except, instead of being in front of an Akuma aiming a harpoon at him, he was in the middle of the street with Nthanda and his little hands wound in a strand of his hair. His shock didn't have a chance to live long as he realized he was still in a battle - a battle for Nthanda's life more than his own, but he had a feeling that perhaps Nthanda was not so helpless.

"First Illusion: Ningen." An army of insects suddenly sprouted from the air, ghostly prawn-like locusts that were willing to eat an entire field of Akuma down to nothing. They raced after the Akuma aiming its harpoon at them, breaking off bits and pieces. Kanda watched for several moments before, suddenly, he was lanced through the shoulder by a harpoon. It was fighting off the Hell Insects! This thing didn't give up easy.

A brilliant bright band encased the middle of the Akuma, and it stood at a standstill, trapped. It screeched in horror as it realized it was being restrained and tightened. Kanda took the moment to climb up the side of the building in a few bounds, giving a devastating slash. It fell with a great crash through a stall, the people below screaming as steaming pieces fell on them. Kanda watched the mayhem with the usual detachment, one hand instinctively holding Nthanda towards his chest. He glared at the pieces of Akuma that would've taken him from him -

Kanda was rocked by the realization that he had actually worried, no _panicked, _when he'd been faced with the realization that he could've accidentally killed Nthanda if... if that... whatever _that _was... hadn't happened. He had to be more careful. This was his charge - had to take care of it. For... for duty. Only for duty. It would be... dishonorable to let him die. Still, he knew that wasn't all of it.

Now, who was it that had trapped that Akuma? Had Din been holding out on him? Keeping talismans somehow without telling him? Either way, he didn't care as long as he used those things well, but that hadn't looked like any talisman light to him. In fact -

Gah! He was so stupid! He'd know those lights anywhere. Scattered around his feet, he watched spell tags flutter.

CROW.

"It's about time you got here," Kanda said, turning around as the last light of day flashed over his face in a reddish glow, making him look bloodied and tired. In fact, much of him was already covered with Akuma oil. His face was splattered, along with his shirt and sling and pants. It'd be a bugger trying to get it all out.

From the shadows, a dark scarlet robed figure stepped out. The robes were long, ending towards the knees, and the pants held half the design of the CROW emblem, a gold double diamond. He wore a turban of blood red, the emblem on the top as well, with a veil over the face. The hair was bound back, completely hidden in the turban, and Kanda suddenly frowned. This CROW member was awfully short, almost half his height practically. The dying light of the day spluttered out like a candle, flashing over the bandages over the tunic-like, sleeveless scarlet robe. The CROW member took off the veil, revealing a young woman's face. He was taken aback a bit, but maybe he shouldn't have been. The CROW had men and women alike - just, there were usually more men than women. She must've been the only one to survive.

"Name?" he asked.

"Vanya," she said, just as taciturn. In the dark, he couldn't really see her face. The voice was deep, an alto voice that could've easily been mistaken for a boy's, albeit a young boy's. He nodded, but then he realized that she couldn't see his face - or, at least he didn't think so.

"Name?" she asked, also.

"Kanda."

"Good."

With that, as if on cue, the both of them began to leave, and Kanda felt the day slowly settle on him like falling debris in water, filtering to the bottom and slowly piling up. He could feel the stress beginning to pound on him, but he knew that with enough meditation, he'd be able to clear it all away and categorize the events of the day into neat piles. Still, he couldn't help but feel strangely detached from every event that had happened, yet at the same time still in the present. He protectively held Nthanda, despite the fact the baby was already settled in his sling. His arms were tight around the baby, subconsciously making sure that Nthanda was in one piece, breathing, abnormally warm as usual.

The gas lights came on as the two of them climbed off the building. The damage to the street wasn't bad - there were a few stalls knocked over, some broken pots, a few bent light poles. Ellis and Din revealed themselves from under the alcove they'd hidden in, and they watched the CROW with wariness. Din rubbed the back of his head, looking away from the scarlet-robed figure, and Ellis fidgeted as they headed towards the two.

"We'll leave to a safehouse. Let's go," Vay said, and Kanda felt a part of him bristle. He was the one who made the decisions. What gave her the right to just tell them what to do? He settled the feeling down - technically, she was in a different jurisdiction, so it was hard to say who was over who in terms of rank. The assumption of power, however, still nagged at him like a hangnail.

They walked down the avenue, shadows of the things they'd done still playing amid the dark spots under the street lamps, always at the back of their minds.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Shew, it took a while to write this. Still, I don't think it's a bad chapter - chock full of babies, their problems, and Kanda having to deal with them. I'm pretty sure that's what everybody ordered...

So, time for recognition! On Team Review (yes, here we go again with the teams) we have karina001, KAI-Chan94, EXO718, and Solicide! Woooo! That's a good number of people right there, I'd say. Sixteen reviews for only three chapters, geez... You guys are beating CATW by a total of nearly 4 reviews per chapter for their 1 review per chapter. Good job! (Not that I pick sides, of course)

On Team Subscribe, we've got Tintaglia In Flight (who I'm planning on using liberally as a go-to for South African geography - go natives!), XkatarinaXILSB, and Totally CRAZY And Hyper. Oooooh, Team Subscribe and Team Review are neck and neck at 4 to 4.

And finally, Team Favorite. We have one lonely new addition, who, luckily, is also on Team Subscribe: Totally CRAZY And Hyper, way to go you!

And now, the discussion questions. Do you think things are going to get more interesting with this CROW hanging around? How long do you think Kanda will be able to put up with three people and a baby? Do you think they're ever going to end up leaving South Africa any time soon? What's with that weird thing that happened with Kanda?

Anywho, I've eaten enough of your time. Three magic words: review, subscribe, favorite!

Happy Thanksgiving, God bless, and may you always find literate fics to pour over.

-Doctor Yok


	5. Fevers and Snakes, Fire and Jackals

Kanda nodded off again, but he managed to jolt himself awake before his head hit the table. He'd been up for nearly twenty-four hours. It was difficult to stay up for so long, even for someone like Kanda whose stamina almost never seemed to flag. The Exorcist stood up, stretching his long legs. He walked towards the small, makeshift crib they'd made for Nthanda. One good thing about that CROW was that she had a knack for resourcefulness. Vanya had volunteered to help Kanda with keeping watch over Nthanda, but Kanda had decided otherwise. He had always held a rather subconscious aversion towards the CROW faction of Central. It didn't help that they'd been dispatched to kill him when he was young, a memory he'd much rather try to forget. Right now, she was his guide and partner, alongside Ellis and Din.

Though, if anyone asked Kanda, this party had grown about three too large already. He couldn't say that he wasn't grateful for their help now and again, of course. Give credit where credit is due. They had managed to stay alive this long, and that was a feat within itself. Finders had a lifespan of nearly five years, maybe a little bit shorter than that, and according to Din, he'd been in the Finders' group for nearly seven. Ellis had never been in an Akuma attack before, and Kanda had thought that, all things considered, she'd done pretty well. At the least, she didn't run off screaming like a silly, bleating goat-nag.

Kanda peered into the crib, which was more like a basket lined with several layers of sheets and a mesh of chicken wire over it to keep Nthanda from crawling out. The little, dark baby practically blended in with the darkness within the basket. The gold circle in the middle of his chest caught the light, winking at Kanda as he felt the baby's forehead. It was extremely warm, much more than his usual temperature. In a stark contrast with his usual sleeping habits, Nthanda was incredibly still now, and Kanda felt a moment of unease. It was too close to the stillness of death for Kanda to feel comfortable. He didn't like that the baby was so unresponsive or inactive, but he tried to keep his worry under the radar. He couldn't be too attached - that last fight in the marketplace had shown Kanda just how fragile his life could be. One bullet would be more than enough to bleed that little body out until it was a husk.

The thought sent a shiver down Kanda's spine. Even he couldn't stomach the death of someone so young. He peeled back the mesh on the basket, and he lifted Nthanda out of the impromptu crib. The spirit of his mother had been going nuts in his ear these past couple of hours, and that had helped him to stay awake and check on the baby every fifteen minutes or so. Even now, she was jabbering into his ear. He ignored her, as always, and held the baby in the crook of his arm. At least if he was going to fall asleep, he'd have Nthanda closer than a few feet away. He could feel Nthanda's frantically fast heartbeat pulsing against his chest as he sat down and laid the baby against him.

They were in a safehouse. It was small, close, and probably not all that sanitary, but it was the only place that might be fortified enough to keep them from being turned into Swiss cheese if Akuma attacked in the night. The Church had agreed to pay for it rather than let them use the traveler's rooms in the Johannesburg cathedral. They were already moved to the outskirts of the city in order to catch the next train to another depot out along the fringes of South Africa. He made a mental note to go and find a map of the area before they left in the next day or so when the trains finally begin running again. Another bombing had destroyed part of the route from Johannesburg to the outlying depot, delaying departures and arrivals by a good two days. Nevertheless, Kanda would not be remiss to be out of this poor, stinking city with its poverty and its aristocracy. Europeans - feh.

The door creaked open, and Kanda looked up. Fighter's instinct told him to immediately grab Mugen from the side of the chair, and though he saw that it was only Vanya, the CROW that had been sent as an escort, he still felt wary. She seemed a little too emotional for a CROW. She was quiet, unassuming, but also strangely kind, a characteristic Kanda had not thought a CROW could possibly possess. She'd already made toys for some of the children on their street, and she seemed to attract them without even meaning to. However, he had also seen firsthand her ability to handle herself in a tense situation.

That poor pickpocket. He'd probably pissed himself when she'd backed him up against a wall and pressed a knife under his ear. Kanda wasn't impressed, but the pickpocket had learned his lesson. Kanda had seen a small, slim knife in the man's hand, but he immediately dropped it after being confronted with the likes of the Eastern European CROW.

Along with that ruthlessness, he'd sensed a sort of sadist tendency within her. He'd watched her mercilessly pick the legs off of spiders when bored, or stomp out the lives of the bugs around her when anxious or restless. He'd watched her pin certain bugs to a cork board she kept in a case, watching intently as they twitched and scrambled. Her words were usually terse and clipped, and, to him, she seemed unpredictable. CROW had a neat little pigeonhole in Kanda's mind. Not only was she a CROW, she did not fit what he knew of them, and that made him wary.

Kanda shook his head, trying to stay awake. He looked down at Nthanda, reminiscing over the brief feeling of panic he'd felt after realizing that his little charge had turned a dark, dark color and begun to breath shallowly. As they'd walked back towards the cathedral, the babe had begun a fever before becoming restless. Afterwards, he'd become very still.

_It was the fighting. Either I tired him out during the fight, or he tired _himself _out after...whatever it was that had happened,_ Kanda monologued internally as he stared at the ceiling. He finally looked down towards the spot of moonlight spilling through the window. That moment in time where he'd been somewhere and nowhere at the same time... it had been such a bizarre experience. There was no way to actually describe it. He closed his eyes, picturing the vivid images he'd witnessed in that strange nowhere.

Come to think of it, Vanya had been awfully interested in the incident as well. She'd asked several questions on the way from the cathedral to the hotel, most pertaining to what he'd seen and how it had happened. Now that he thought about it, she had seemed a little bit _too _interested. Then again, he could be paranoid, but he doubted it.

He looked down at the baby. Lately, he'd had the sneaking suspicion that, despite what the Science Department thought, Nthanda's Innocence was far more active than they'd originally thought. He'd been noticing something odd, but he'd kept the idea to himself. Kanda wasn't a very talkative person to begin with, and this wasn't something he'd like to just throw out of nowhere.

Kanda had the idea that Nthanda's Innocence must work by skin contact. The child had more than once seemed to 'pick up' on emotions and thoughts Kanda had, usually while tugging on his hair. They had been touching when that strange incident happened on the rooftop. The Akuma he'd fought nearly two weeks ago and shied from Nthanda's touch as if he could cause death with a fingertip. Kanda shook his head. He sighed to himself. He must be crazy.

Nthanda suddenly began to stir, and Kanda felt the oddest thrill. It was a ripple of relief that the child was at the least active and alive, and he attributed it to human instinct to see to the survival of their race. The babe attempted to stand on his chest, but his little legs were too weak to hold him up. Kanda walked back towards the crib, and Nthanda began to cry. Kanda stood, lost for a moment. What did he do? The kid just suddenly started to cry, and he couldn't get him to stop...

"He vants to be held," a thick-accented voice stated. Kanda looked over to the voice, unsurprised to find Vanya standing near the window. Her white face was nearly blue in the moonlight, and he was struck by how ghostly she appeared. Still, true to his nature, he didn't show his unease. He merely stood there, Nthanda screaming in his arms.

"Tch," Kanda snorted derisively, but he walked back to his chair. Nthanda began to calm down the minute he'd sat, and Vanya approached slowly. She blinked her eyes slowly, and Kanda couldn't help but notice the tension in the room with the CROW present. She was... not an enemy, but not a friend. She had not yet gained either his respect or his trust. It would be especially hard for her considering she was one of Central's cronies.

It was quiet as Kanda sat in the chair, his eyes diverted to the floor. Despite the fact his eyes were never on the CROW, he was always aware of where she was, his ears twitching as she walked across the room. He could feel the hairs on the back of his neck rise the nearer she approached, and he felt like he had to restrain a growl as she picked something up from the table next to him. It was as if they were two large dogs sharing the same space, and the both of them were a little too close for comfort.

"Jyou do not like me," Vanya stated. It wasn't a question. Kanda stared at her, and their eyes locked together like the pieces of a jagged puzzle that didn't fit quite right. The friction was nearly palpable.

"No. I don't," Kanda ground out between his teeth. "Stay out of my way, and we won't have problems." Nthanda wailed, and Kanda winced as the sound thrummed his eardrums. Vanya shifted her weight nearer to Kanda as if to act, and Kanda stood up. He was practically double her height, yet in presence they both seemed to exhude the same amount of animosity.

"Stay out of my way... and we will not have problems," he reiterated, punctuating each statement. The two of them stood like that for several moments, Nthanda continuing to scream. Kanda finally broke the tension as Nthanda's screams reached a higher pitch by carrying him to a nearby table and setting the baby down. He felt the baby, noting just how feverish he'd gotten. He must be uncomfortable, but he wasn't sure what to do now. He rubbed his temples, trying to think through the massive amount of noise the baby was putting out.

What did you do for a fever? He couldn't get the kid to eat anything - he'd been asleep this entire time, and he doubted he could get him to take a pill or eat a bite of anything. He couldn't put him back in the crib. He was too afraid that if he left him as he was, he'd only get worse. That blasted screaming! Hellfire, he was loud!

Ellis suddenly entered in a bluster, her nightrobe wrapped around herself like a shifting ribbon of cloth.

"What do you think you're doing, young man? Why haven't you -"

"Because I'm trying to figure out what to do, that's why, you old bag. Go back to sleep."

"How in heaven's name am I going to sleep when this baby is sounding Judgement Day!" Kanda finally turned around and took a threatening step towards the old woman, and Ellis took a step back in surprise. Realizing she'd flinched, Ellis faltered. Kanda was breathing hard, obviously frustrated and tired. She swallowed audibly, having seen firsthand how brutal and violent he could become if the right trigger was pushed.

"Haf jyou tried singing?"

The words took them both offguard. The words were quiet underneath Nthanda's incessant wailing, but they were projected well enough that it cut through the noise easily as a boat's prow through calm water. She walked towards Kanda, and again the image of two dogs bristling was brought to mind. Ellis could taste the antagonism radiated by the two. Vanya was a CROW - she knew Kanda's past, most likely. Kanda was a Second Exorcist - CROW were less than his best buddies.

If Kanda had anything to say, CROW were less than filth.

"All jyou hef dohn iss hold him end yaell at old vimen. Try to sing to him, and he vill quiet. If not, he iss hungry or he vants to be held, or he iss very hot end needs a cool cloth. Zat iss almost all bebies need," she stated. Kanda felt the paranoia rise, but he wasn't sure why. He remembered the last time he'd chosen to trust someone - Lavi had ended up getting him stuck in a dumpster. The time before that Allen nearly took off his head. The time before _that _he'd trusted Alma -

Almost by instinct, he circumvented the subject.

"Vell? If jyou von't, I vill," Vanya stated, her voice strangely flat. There was no inflection, no hint of anger or rage or frustration. Kanda was cold, but Vanya seemed empty.

Nevertheless, the CROW picked up Nthanda, and she placed him in the crook of her arm. She stood near the window, leaving Ellis and Kanda to stand near the table and watch.

"Kanda, you can't keep butting heads with her," Ellis muttered, looking up at him. Her eyes were still a bright, and her voice was brittle with indignation. She didn't appreciate being disrespected, but Kanda didn't really care.

"The hell I can," Kanda mumbled, crossing his arms. The CROW was rocking from side to side, a note or two wafting away towards the two of them every time she moved her head back towards them when she rocked backwards. She looked back every now and again, wary of the volatile Exorcist behind her. Despite the fact both knew that it was unlikely there would ever be an actual fight within an enclosed space, both were as tense as predators prowling within close proximity to each other.

Ellis shook her head, and she stated, "You'd both had better get your act straight. The African wilderness doesn't leave room for distrust. The minute the both of you are at your necks, the wilds will take you." Kanda stared at Vanya, glaring at the back of her head, and Ellis finally gave up on attempting to talk to him. She toddled back out of the room, muttering under her breath about hot-blooded men and their tendency of stopping their ears to good judgment.

_"She's right, you know,"_ Nthanda's mother mumbled, and Kanda wished, for the umpteenth time, that he had a corporeal body to maim. The world was against him some days, he guessed.

He sat down in his chair with a grunt, deciding it wasn't worth it to try and fight Vanya for the baby. He was quiet besides, and that was all Kanda cared about. As long as the kid stayed asleep, he was happy. That meant he could actually get some shut-eye.

However, Kanda couldn't seem to find slumber. It eluded him like a silvery fish between his fingers, here at one point and gone the next. Vanya's low humming kept him awake, and he finally gave up with a massive sigh. He looked over at Vanya, studying her. She was standing sideways, the light throwing her face into stark relief.

She had a long, high-bridged nose that ended in a flat point. Her eyes were a strange color, a dark brown color that was reminiscent of old blood. Her lips were thin, but not to the point of being nonexistent. She had a high forehead and a dark, almost sullen brow. Her hair was cropped short and held back with a myriad of pins into a crown of small braids. She looked familiar, as if he'd seen her before in a half-remembered dream.

And then, suddenly, the scene seemed to freeze and focus, everything becoming crystal clear.

_She_ was standing there. Despite the fact that Kanda knew it was Vanya next to the window with Nthanda bundled in her arms, he saw _her. _For that moment, it was as if the world had been thrown off kilter, and everything had shifted over. Kanda didn't feel like Kanda - he was someone else all of a sudden, with different moods, a different personality, different _everything. _Yet, at the same time, he was still his belligerent, moody, foul self. Nevertheless, he could feel the strangest feeling within him for the woman standing not ten feet away, this _warmth _that he couldn't understand, not now. He'd felt something like it before, but that had been a different time and place, and a different sort of love all together. Still, this feeling was odd, because he knew that he was feeling this emotion for _her_, not for the person standing in her place.

And then, the world was righted. Kanda was once again Kanda. Vanya was Vanya, and Nthanda was sound asleep. Kanda felt sick to his stomach, and his vision felt as if it had just gone from double vision straight to single again. This was the second time in a month. What was going on?

_"Weird,"_ Nthanda's mother muttered in his ear, though he doubted she realized she was so close, if that was possible for a spirit. He blinked, looking off in a different direction from the pair at the window.

"What do you mean, weird?" Kanda mumbled quietly under his breath. She couldn't have possibly felt it, too. He was the only person who would have this problem, save for... well, there was no use broaching that subject.

_"Jus'... thought I felt somethin'. Like some'n was with me, y'know? Not like y'all are, or nothin'. I'm talkin' like _with _me, like... like dead. Ain't never felt nothin' like that before." _Kanda felt his throat constrict, and a feeling of overwhelming confusion, rage, and despair passed over him for a minute. He had been so close to realizing what that feeling was, and he'd actually... actually enjoyed that warmth, and now it was gone, leaving behind this cold, dark hole. He hadn't even known it was there, but now it blared its presence like a boy with a bugle.

He'd felt like this before. It had been a long time ago on a mission with yet another woman, though she was significantly older than Vanya, and he'd only been fourteen. The experience had disoriented him so much that he'd flown into rages at the slightest provocation afterwards for nearly a day. That hole had existed, and he hadn't been able to define or pinpoint it. Even the strange warmth had discomforted him, breeding doubt and suspicion within about himself. He'd buried the memory, unwilling to acknowledge it.

"Yeah," he muttered. He looked up Vanya, and he noticed she was staring at him. He narrowed his eyes at her, discontent written all over his face at having to recognize her presence. Nthanda slumbered in her arms, and Kanda stood up. He walked towards Vanya, slowly with sure steps like a predator standing its ground against another of its kind. He took Nthanda carefully from Vanya's arms, and the two white appendages fell like limp rubber to her sides. She looked up at him, and he was surprised for all of a moment to see a small edge of hurt in her stare. He returned her stare, radiating his displeasure.

"I'll take care of it," Kanda stated firmly. Vanya looked up at him, her head barely even reaching his chest. She practically had to tilt her head all the way back to look up at him. Her stare went from a small hint of hurt to a steely wall of indifference. That made more sense to him.

"Him," Vanya answered back with a strong, though little, voice. Kanda frowned, suddenly confused. It must've shown on his face, because she rolled her eyes, and she reiterated, "Jyou called him _it. _He is not _it, _he is _he._ See human for human." She slowly turned, and she walked out of the room. The minute the door closed behind her, Kanda felt his body completely relax. He hadn't even noticed that he'd been so tense. CROW bothered him more than he liked to admit.

He looked down at Nthanda. There were times he thought of Nthanda as no more than a mission. He took care of the kid, made sure that he was changed, fed, and healthy, and that was all. Those times were a lot more common than the antithesis.

And then there were the times when he could almost feel that warmth within him whenever he thought about Nthanda. The kid had a personality, one that was cantankerous as an old man, stalwart as a warrior, easily disturbed, and melancholy. There were moments where he watched Nthanda experience this sort of distilled joy, such as when he played with his drum, or when he laughed at something Ellis had done. During those times, he almost wished that he could be the object from which that joy had issued, but he knew that this was not possible for the likes of him. Kanda was not one to bring about happiness - quite the opposite in fact.

He had accepted that fact, but that didn't mean his mind didn't wander to wondering if he could do something like that, make someone purely joyful, purely happy. He hated himself, that he would even entertain such a useless thought, but he decided that perhaps it was merely human nature that dictated this offshoot of thought. Even so, he often wondered if there was something wrong with him as well, that he would want this... and yet never act on it and accept that it can never happen.

Exhausted from this sudden emotional debacle, Kanda sat down in his chair. He inspected Nthanda again at his mother's bequest, seeing that he was still dry and asleep. His skin was significantly cooler, though not at all the normal heat of a young baby's body. Kanda had grown used to the unnatural heat that Nthanda exhuded, and he paid no attention to this. Instinct of a sort told Kanda that Nthanda was now at a normal body temperature, or at least normal for the strange little tyke.

He looked out the window, watching the skyline slowly turn lighter and lighter. He sighed.

The day had begun. It figured.

* * *

><p>"Oh, for God's sake, stay still!"<p>

"How the hell am I supposed to stay still when you're digging your fingers into my back?"

"I thought a top-notch warrior like you can take anything -"

"Doesn't mean I don't feel it, you old bag!"

Kanda winced again as another dab of after-sun was stuck to his shoulder. They'd been traveling for days. The train had had to make frequent stops, and eventually the tracks had actually been completely decimated by the local anti-government militia group. Frustrated by the delay, Kanda had conferred with his unlikely band of companions about going off on their own ahead of the train, and by 'confer', he means 'walking off in the direction of the next outpost without further ado.' Vanya and Ellis had been less than pleased, seeing as Vanya appeared to be on a deadline and Ellis was a little bit apprehensive of being out in the wilderness without the amenities of modern civilization.

And so, Kanda had decided that it was much too hot to just go around wearing a shirt underneath the hot, uncomfortable sun. He'd wandered around shirtless in the city as well, though only for short spurts of time. He'd _thought _the same principle could be used here. Vanya had been much of the same mind, though she was still wearing a loose tank top along with her usual bandages. With Nthanda strapped to his chest with a scarf, Kanda had tramped over the South African countryside through scrubby land, rolling hills, and short, stocky trees. He now had a two angry, red stripes running down his shoulder and back where his scarf had cut into his shoulder and saved the covered skin from a righteously furious sunburn.

"GENTLE. Do you not understand that word!" Kanda grumbled as it stung across his back. They were using a concoction Din had made up for them nearly fifteen minutes ago from local plants. He was currently giving Vanya the same treatment, although she was quieter about it, if still radiating the same amount of displeasure. Din chuckled as Kanda kept complaining and Ellis kept rebutting. Nthanda, strangely enough, was entirely unaffected, though he was, of course, shielded by the sun inside of his little pouch.

"We hike mehbe fifty, sixty more miles befoe we hit deh gorge. It take us... eh, I seh tree days tops to get dere," Dingane stated as he smeared more of the foul smelling paste. Vanya grumbled something under her breath, something pertaining to 'shoving a train' into rather unmentionable places. Din laughed to himself, dark lips pulled back over startlingly white teeth.

The laughter was cut short as a rustling sound overtook the brown-yellow savanna. There was a hush as the group tensed, watching the grass sway with the sudden wind in an eerie display. The threat of militia and Akuma created an atmosphere of unstable calm that could shift at any moment. The long, high grasses didn't help that fact, as it was all too easy for an Akuma or a man with a gun to be hiding within their long stalks. The gently rolling hills could more than likely hide a group of fighters or a pack of murderous Akuma.

However, this time, it seemed to merely be a false alarm. The wind died down, and the waves of grass stilled. Kanda could feel the paste on his back beginning to dry out as it soaked into his skin and crumbled at the touch.

"We should keep moving," he stated, suddenly very serious. He had the feeling they'd stayed there for too long. He looked around for Nthanda, whom he let crawl around and explore. After being in his little pouch for so long, he was cranky and restless. If there was anything to say of the usually dour baby, he was energetic. Kanda had no doubt he'd managed to crawl a good five feet away, and he didn't have the parental ability to keep an eye on him for more than a few minutes at a time before letting his mind drift off on a separate topic, allowing the little tyke time to escape his gaze.

It seemed that Nthanda had once again taken advantage of Kanda's lack of parental worry by wandering into the grasses. The first time he'd done so, Ellis had nearly fallen over and died of a heart attack, though Kanda himself wasn't too worried. Despite the danger of snakes and bugs, he wasn't shaken up too badly about it as long as the kid was within walking distance, but then again, Kanda was not exactly the poster child for parenting.

"Vehre did zeh littlen von go? Jyou let him run off again!" Vanya suddenly stated with incredulity. Kanda scoffed, standing up from his half-squatting, half-sitting position on a rock. He walked into the grass where he'd seen the little boy last, and he heard the familiar sounds of Nthanda gurgling away nearly fifty feet in that direction. He frowned as he realized that it had happened _again._

As of late, Nthanda had taken to appearing and disappearing in random places. Kanda knew this should worry him more, but he couldn't seem to muster up any more worry considering just how taxing it was to travel with an Innocence wielding toddler, an elderly woman, an oddly cheery Finder, and a cruelly kind CROW. Nthanda should've died probably a grand total of fifty times since the start of their trip from East London nearly three weeks ago, but here he was. Kanda was guessing the kid was tougher than he looked, especially given his Innocence, and that the baby was self-sufficient to a point. He still didn't like being put down and practically threw a mini-tantrum every time Kanda set him down, but Kanda's glare could take down Nthanda's petulant stare in a heartbeat.

Kanda finally swept away the swath of grass in front of a rather large clearing, and his face deadpanned as he stared.

_MY BABY -!_

_You can't be serious_.

Ellis and Vanya appeared behind him, each leaning around him to see what he was staring at. Din was farther behind, and by the time he saw what was happening, the other two had their mouths hanging open.

Nthanda was playing with a puff adder. It was long, nearly a meter total in length, and it was the color of sand. It easily blended in with the dead grasses beneath the living, tall grass, and its eyes bulged out of its head as Nthanda whipped it and held it around the neck with his pudgy hands. He gurgled pleasantly as he played with the poisonous snake, and the entire party of travelers could only stare in horror.

"Kanda... Kanda, go and get that away from him. Dear Lord in heaven above, get that thing out of his hands," Ellis whispered furiously to the point of its volume reaching a yell. Kanda muttered, "Hell, looks like he has that under control."

_MY BABY HAS A SNAKE! A SNAKE, YA CLODHEAD! GET IT AWAY, GET IT AWAY -_

, jyou can't just leave zeh beby wit a _snake,_" Vanya muttered, transfixed by Nthanda's rough handling of the snake.

"All right. _You _grab the snake. I'm not going to do it," Kanda growled.

_WHY ARE YOU JUST STANDIN' THERE -_

"This is the fifth time in three days! Last time it was a boomslang he pulled out of a _tree!_" Ellis fretted loudly over Kanda and Vanya bickering about who should grab the snake and what to do if either was bit.

"I get bit, and you're all screwed trying to fight Akuma -"

"Jyou hef ze sense of deerection of a rock, end ve vould be lost in a heartbeat -"

_- AND THEN HE'LL GET BIT AND HE'LL START SWELLIN' LIKE A BALLOON-_

"Eh, Kanda, mehbe they right, cos deh behby look like he gone try 'n eat dat snehk."

"QUIET!"The world seemed to follow suit with Kanda's command, save for the small child who was gurgling away as he continued to try and gum the snake in his hands to death. Kanda walked over to the baby, squatted down to his hieght, and held out his hand.

"Snake. Now," he ordered tersely, his words clipped short. Nthanda's face scrunched up in distaste as if he recognized that he was being ordered to do something. He turned his face away, snake still in his mouth as it flailed and jerked in his hands. Kanda placed a hand on top of his head and turned it his way, staring into Nthanda's eyes as the kid glared with his big, brown eyes. The circle in the middle of his chest glinted past the snake, and Nthanda grumbled something while simultaneously pouting through a mouthful of reptile. Kanda narrowed his eyes.

"Snake. NOW." The combination of touch, voice command, and stare instilled doubt in the little baby's face, and he reluctantly took the snake out of his mouth, handing it over to Kanda grumpily as if to say 'I didn't even want it anyways.' Kanda flicked the snake back into the grass, hurtling it nearly twenty feet, and with a touch of amusement noted that it had fainted upon release. He didn't even hear it slither away.

"Kanda... you... you just... ordered" Ellis shakily said, pointing. Kanda picked up Nthanda, dusted him off, and stated, "Can't ever start too young." Vanya blocked his way through the grass, and the two had yet another staredown. Kanda lifted a single eyebrow, and Vanya sighed.

She took a handkerchief from a pocket on her pants, and she wet it from her water bottle. She cleaned off Nthanda's hands, and she said, "Jyou should be more cayrefol. This... this could hef ended behdly." Nthanda stared up at Kanda petulantly, but he didn't fight being held.

"End if jyou vere bitten?" she asked, looking up at him. The tension was thick, but this tension was not like the animosity they'd had before. This was more of a patient tension rather than a chafing one. It was the sort of thickness that existed between two people who weren't sure if they could get along or not.

"Tch," Kanda scoffed, and he brushed past her. Vanya stood there, and she gave a small chuckle as she shook her head and followed him. Ellis wasn't far behind in a sort of dazed state, and Din could only smile his wide smile, wondering at what sort of other miracles were going to happen around the strange man with the sword on his waist and stone in his face.

* * *

><p>The fire blazed, illuminating the outlying landscape. Jackals howled beyond the perimeter of the fire, and Kanda could see them prowling, mere dark, inky outlines against the lighter dark of nighttime. He turned his attention back to the the fire. They'd just eaten a dinner consisting of tubers and poultry from some sort of bird with an awfully annoying call of haa-haa-haa-haa-dek. Kanda picked his teeth with one of the bones, and Ellis gave him a glare.<p>

"Even out in the wilderness, you should at least keep some modicum of societal grace," she muttered, punctuating this statement with a keen sip out of her china teacup. Kanda had absolutely no idea how she'd managed to keep all her chinaware intact for so long. He figured that she'd learned a thing or two from traveling out of Central, or she was just so stubborn that none of her chinaware dared break on her.

He didn't bother to answer her, and he fed Nthanda another piece of yam. The little tyke greedily sucked it off of Kanda's fingers, hanging on to his hand. Vanya chuckled as Nthanda babbled, almost whining for some more food. Kanda gave him a look, and Nthanda continued to suck on the swordsman's calloused fingers. Din stated, "If ya en't careful, he may johst eatcha fingers off, Mistuh Kanda. He that hungry sometimes. I seen him, ha ha!" Kanda rolled his eyes as Ellis chuckled.

It was quiet for another moment more, and the jackals howled again. Kanda felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickle. By himself, he wouldn't have been so wary, but seeing as he was with a group of travelers, he felt almost obligated to protect them. His old sense of duty hadn't left, obviously. He looked out into the darkness as Ellis suddenly asked Vanya, "So, tell me dear, where exactly are you from. Your accent is familiar, but I can't quite place it. Prague, perhaps? Or maybe Lwow?"

"No, no," Vanya laughed. "I em frohm Sent Petyasburg, in Russia. Vat about jyou, Missus Ellis? Jyou do not sound like von frohm Johannesburg."

"Oh, the topic of origin, is it? I'm from Bristol, England, actually. I moved to South Africa with my husband after retiring from Central. What about you, Din? You sound like you're from the Dutch Congo than from South Africa," she noted sardonically. Din shrugged, and he said, "Cohme from Mozambique, tiny teeny li'l tribe out dere. Move to deh South Africa when I was nineteen, make money for meh sick sister. Got wit deh Order, they treat me good, real good. Been wid 'em ever since." It was quiet again.

"'N you, Mistuh Kanda? Where you frohm?" The swordsman continued to stare out into the dark, seeing shapes drift in and out, some of them real and others imagined. He could see things from the past, half-formed blobs of places and people he used to know but could no longer remember. The memories came in spurts - they were irregular and hard to hang on to when they did come. Still, no matter where he was, always in the dark he imagined he could see her somewhere, always on the edge of his mind and yet at the same time never actually present, always afraid to actually remember her for fear of what would follow afterwards.

"Nowhere in particular," Kanda answered. He knew that this was raising questions, and no doubt someone was going to ask, but the aura of unapproachability around him was thick and heavy. His past was not something to delve in to.

And besides, that was a question that Kanda honestly had no answer for. Was he from Japan, from Tokyo (or was it Okinawa? Or from Osaka? Or maybe from Kyoto?), or was he from China, where he'd been reborn again into a different body and a different name? Who was he now - still that man who'd died beside her or the poor teenage wreckage left in the wake of a horrible experiment that had resulted in the deaths of tens, if not hundreds, of people? Was there any place Kanda could call a home or an origin?

The silence thickened, made even thicker by the intercepting howls from the local predators. Nthanda smacked the drum he'd dug out from Kanda's bag, the small instrument making arrhythmic noises as he slapped his hands across the hide surface. Kanda looked down at the tyke, and he picked him up, separating him from his drum. For the third time that day, Nthanda pouted, and Kanda wondered where he'd learned that. He knew it wasn't him. He wondered if Vanya just randomly pouted throughout the day, and he'd picked it up from her.

Speaking of the CROW, she was pinning more bugs to her corkboard. She'd written special things in her home tongue underneath, smooth strokes of a fountain pen leaving archaic letters only she understood. She watched as they twitched with a stalwart face, as if she were an executioner doing her job rather than committing herself to a hobby. Kanda shifted his focus to Ellis, who was writing in a notebook. Kanda walked past her, looking over her shoulder to see what she was putting to paper as he headed towards the blanket he was using as Nthanda's makeshift bed. Ellis, however, noticed, and she asked, "You have a question?"

He pointed to the notebook, and Ellis shrugged. "Just a journal of our little adventures. I've been keeping track of all of our little detours, just in case it comes handy. You never know. Documentation is always a good idea."

_Sounds like something the idiot rabbit would say,_ Kanda thought to himself. He vaguely noted as he began to put Nthanda to bed that his mother had been strangely quiet, but he wasn't overly worried. She disappeared for days and then came back, just as naggy and annoying as ever. Nthanda kept trying to crawl away, and Kanda kept having to drag him back. Finally, annoyed beyond belief with the kid's energetic scrambling away, Kanda dropped his sword on the baby's midsection. Nthanda made noises of irritation as he tried to get out from under the heavy sword, but to no avail. Kanda 'hmphed' decisively as Nthanda's struggles slowly ceased, and he fell asleep.

The fire died down, and the others slowly began to sleep. One by one, they laid down, the warm blanket of sleep taking them over. Ellis finished off her entry with a flourish, and she put her pen back into her pack. It had special compartments for pens and other delicate things, and she carefully inserted the pen so that it wouldn't leak. Looking around, she saw that the others had all quickly succumbed to Morpheus, the Greek God of dreams.

She began to head off to her own makeshift bed made of assorted petticoats when she spied something out of the corner of her eye in the dying glow of embers from the fire.

She smiled as Kanda muttered something in his sleep before dragging Nthanda's bed closer to him in a groggy state of being half-awake. He set his head down next to the prostrate babe, and the little boy took hold of a strand of Kanda's hair, tangling his fingers in it. In sleep, Kanda looked ten times younger. The hard, worn demeanor he usually wore melted off in the wake of sleep. The frown lines that usually swept over his brow were nonexistent. His arm was underneath Nthanda's blanket, supporting the baby's head with his forehead pressed to the little one's side, and he looked almost happy this way.

"To sleep, perchance to dream," Ellis muttered. She shook her head, removing her glasses from her nose and letting them hang on the chain as she lowered herself to the ground and allowed sleep to take her as it had taken her other four companions.

In the night, another jackal called out, the howl followed by others, singing a song that meant 'you are not alone.'

* * *

><p>Finally, another chapter! Big thanks to all my reviewers, those being: Kai-Chan94, Totally CRAZY And Hyper, karina001, EXO187, PeachTeaKT, and Tintaglia In Flight. I also love all my subscribers and favoriteers, PeachTeaKT, Green Taurus, Confusedrambler, Here Forever, and Rinaru Yukimura.<p>

Sorry my Author's Drab is not as long as usual. I'm a little pressed for time.

As for my discussion question, I've got only two: what sort of things would you like to see more of, and what has been the funniest or most heartwarming thing you've read so far in the entire story?

Well, until next time!

Also, I apologize about the crappy gramatics and all. I didn't check this one over as thoroughly...

God Bless and happy reading!


	6. An Awfully Eventful Day

"Just my luck. This is perfect, just _frikkin' _perfect," Kanda grumbled angrily. Trapped just in a crack of land not thirty feet away was his sword, the only part visible being the hilt. Seeing as it didn't have a very large hand guard on it, the traditional katana had almost fallen completely in the tiny crevice. Nthanda jabbered nonsensically in a rather irate voice as if this was a mere nuisance rather than a potentially life threatening situation.

A blast of buckshot hit the log Kanda was hiding behind, and splinters smacked him in the face. He muttered a string of curses, and he looked around for his other companions.

They'd accidentally stumbled across a bunch of militia men with rifles and shotguns at a rail bridge that spanned a fairly thin ravine. It looked like they were planning on destroying the bridge across the gorge, if the pay load big enough to blow a hole in the moon had anything to say. Unfortunately for Kanda and his merry band of travelers, they'd come in at exactly the wrong moment, and they'd been hiding for the better part of thirty minutes. Dark voices shouted as they searched through the stand of trees and long grasses for the group. They'd already fired off several shots into the grass, probably a literal example of shooting in the dark. Usually, that sort of thing wouldn't bother Kanda too much.

However, he would much rather _not _be shot. He was in a bit of a pickle at the moment - he'd had to take down an entire army of Level Twos a few hours ago, and that had involved taking several hits he wouldn't have bothered with if he'd been traveling by himself. Vanya had been _somewhat _of a help (with big emphasis on 'somewhat'), seeing as she'd run out of spell tags to use, and she'd been restricted to using only a pair of switchblades. And then she'd run off with Nthanda, which had caused a bit of a panic seeing she almost literally _disappeared _after that. Kanda kept a firm hold on the baby, who'd been gassy for the past thirty minutes. Come to think of it, the kid had gas in the _last _fight, too. Kanda gagged as another waft of putrid baby-stench colored the air green.

He balled up his fists as he heard the sounds of screaming. Crisp, angry English-accented words colored the air with such profanity that Kanda couldn't imagine ithat it was coming out of such an old woman's mouth. He settled deeper into his hiding place, wondering why he'd even allowed Ellis to come on this journey. Such an old person on a trip like this... geriatrics were always a liability. He should've told her to go back.

Suddenly, Din slid across the dirt to Kanda's hiding place, the tall grass keeping him from immediate view. A gunshot spat out a bullet into the tall grasses, luckily nowhere near them. The usually cheerful Finder was especially grim, the transition from his usual joking demeanor to dead seriousness causing a stark contrast.

"How's deh babe?" Din asked as he took off his phone-pack. He'd dutifully taken care of it this entire time, making sure to keep it in order despite the lack of reception. Kanda looked down at Nthanda. The baby was trying to crawl over his shoulder to see what was going on beyond the log. He pulled the baby back into his lap as Nthanda's dark head peeked over their cover.

"Smelly and hyper," Kanda growled. He looked over at Din and was surprised to find him loading a long rifle. His face deadpanned as he asked, "Where the hell did you get _that?_" Din cracked another one of his smiles, and he said, "Learn fast out here, Mistuh Kanda. Ohlways have a gun somewhere no one expect t'find it." He leveled it across the log, and he took aim. Ellis continued to shout and curse, and no doubt she was putting up quite a squall because they hadn't been able to drag her away yet.

Kanda looked up over the log just as Din squeezed off a shot, and he just managed to cover Nthanda's ears in time to protect him from the noise. Kanda winced as pain lanced through his left eardrum, and he caught the sight of blood through the curtain of grasses. Din ducked and loaded again, and he crept back into the grass. He only poked his head out long enough to tell Kanda, "Get ya sword, take 'em down, 'n I'll go cover ya back." He disappeared back into the cover of the tall grass, and Kanda eyed his sword.

Vanya suddenly intruded, skidding in a cloud of dirt, and the samurai grumbled dissent. Everyone and their grandmother was trying to get to him, it seemed. Vanya didn't pay any attention to his grumbling, and she said, "Ve hef to go. I hef been vatching ze men at ze bridge, end dey're getting clohse to finished vit deh explosive. End ve can't take Nthanda vit us right now. Too many men vit too many bullets." Kanda stared at her.

"I don't remember you saying anything like that five hours ago," Kanda growled, and Vanya narrowed her eyes.

"Zat vass different. _Jyou _hef no sword, and _I _hef no spell tags left. Much more dangerous for beby Nthanda," Vanya argued. Kanda crossed his arms and looked off in another direction petulantly. Vanya groaned and rolled her eyes.

"Jyou ect like a _child -_"

Another spray of splinters rained over the both of them. This log was taking a real beating. Suddenly, Ellis shouted something along the lines of 'take that, you disgusting baboons', and a deafening scream echoed over the green, South African plain. It sounded like Ellis got a hold of an unlucky militia man's gun.

"Heh. Ellis gave them a run for their money," Kanda grumbled, and Vanya actually chuckled. Nthanda clapped his hands clumsily at the sound of another gunshot, and the two fighters stared at the baby.

"Ve are noht fery good parents."

"Since when did we become parents?" The two went still as voices drew nearer, and Ellis fell silent. She must've run off into the bush to hide.

"Head to the bridge. Find Ellis if you can. Take out anyone who stops you," Kanda ordered. For a moment he saw indignation in her face, and he thought she might argue with him, but she turned tail just as quick and headed in the direction of the gorge. He watched the grass shift and move as she left, gunshots and yelling punctuating the air with exclamation points. As she ran off, Kanda looked across the grass to the clearing where his sword stuck out of the ground. He groaned. He'd need both hands for this, and he didn't want to bring Nthanda. He looked down at the baby who was amazingly quiet and unfazed by the sounds of destruction. He wasn't sure if he should be disturbed or not that the kid had gotten so used to the noises of war.

Never the less, it would take him probably six seconds tops to reach the sword, grab it, and another six seconds to come back. That was a total of twelve seconds that he'd be exposed, which meant he'd be shot at. Vanya was right - this wasn't like earlier today. He didn't have a weapon to deflect anything with. He looked down at Nthanda, and he pointed at the baby.

"Stay," he said hesitantly. What was the kid, a dog? Did they even obey commands like 'sit', 'stay', and 'lie down'? Hopefully he didn't know 'play dead', because Kanda didn't much appreciate suffering a heart attack. Still, it didn't look like Nthanda was going to go anywhere. The baby merely patted the dirt, unperturbed by the noises going on in the grass around him. He farted again, and Kanda palmed his face. The haggard samurai looked out to the clearing, and he made a dash. Loud yells followed, and the sound of rifles being cocked or loaded filled the air. He dashed back, and _that _was when the shots came after him. Luckily, these were much smaller bullets coming from much more horrible marksmen.

Kanda skidded through the grass towards his initial hiding spot, and he was glad to find that Nthanda hadn't moved any in the seconds he'd been gone. In fact, the kid had actually _fallen asleep _in the shadow of the log, and Kanda felt annoyed and relieved. Nthanda must've been born with nerves made of steel. Kanda picked the baby up, but as he did so, he heard the cock of a gun at the base of his neck. Cold metal pressed against the nape of his skull, and his eyes narrowed.

"I give you three seconds to stand up," a gruff, male voice stated. Kanda stood up slowly, one arm cradling a sleeping baby and the other clenched tight as he gripped his sword. The gunmetal continually pressed against his neck as he rose.

He went over the steps in his mind, everything traveling at the speed of light and the speed of a snail all at once.

_First, take out the gun. _Kanda's foot slid back ever so slightly, his wrist rotating as his entire body folded underneath the gun. The sword made contact with the gun, knocking it away. The man's face contorted into an expression of surprise and distress as he fired the gun, the noise waking Nthanda and causing him to scream loudly in annoyance.

_Second, take out the knees. _Kanda completed the arc, causing sparks as the katana slid off of the gun. It continued around, hitting the man squarely above the knees and cutting the tendons and ligaments holding the thigh muscles to the knee. The man fell as his legs refused to support him,

_Third, take out the throat. _The sword arm was cocked back, the tip a mere foot from the man's throat, and just as he began to push it forwards, he stopped. His eyes widened as the swordsman stared at the man on his knees, finding his body strangely locked in place.

Nthanda tugged on his hair, his screaming far away as a voice rang in his ear, a voice like that of Nthanda's mother, but so much... _more._

**STOP. **Kanda tried to turn his head towards the voice, but it was everywhere and nowhere. A rush of other voices in different languages assailed him, and his only thought was that he must be going crazy.

**BACK AWAY FROM THE MAN. **Kanda obeyed against his will, every muscle straining to defy the order. The man on his knees attempted to level the gun, but he fell over, screaming as blood gushed out from his legs.

**GO TO THE BRIDGE. **Kanda started to walk through the tall grass towards the gorge, in his mind shrieking and tearing down at the mental walls that were now hemming him in. He had only gone about three yards before he felt the voice leave, and the rush of voices left with it. He suddenly dropped to his knees, gasping for air. Nthanda sniffled, and Kanda could only rub his forehead, wondering what in the _hell _that had been.

_What's goin' on? Why are there so many people with guns? What did you do! Idiot! You're supposed to be keeping my baby safe, not throwin' him into danger! _

"Shut up! I know that!" Kanda shouted, deciding that he didn't care if anyone was there to hear. Whatever had just happened... that voice was familiar, but he didn't recognize it... he was... confused... angry... _furious..._

Kanda suddenly ran for the gorge, deciding he couldn't just waste time. They'd figure this out later. He could see men rushing towards him as he burst out of the grass. Their bullets whizzed past, but he could easily duck and dodge these. These bullets were nothing compared to Akuma bullets. He deflected several with his sword, sending them into the nearest person with the lightest flick. He had to cover a lot of ground. There was about five hundred yards of tree-studded green plain ahead of him, and right there was the bridge.

It was a wooden construct that started at the edge of a gorge that was probably about a quarter of a mile wide. He skidded down an embankment, noises following him as Nthanda screamed angrily.

And then, just like that, he was in that nowhere again. He'd taken a step, and Kanda was back in that place that wasn't a place. He was shocked by the sudden transition, watching the nothingness pass him by as small segments of images flashed in his mind's eye and in front of him, correlating to whatever was in his head.

Just like the last time, as quickly as it had appeared, it left, and Kanda found himself standing next to Vanya at the bridge. Vanya shouted in surprise, nearly hitting him as she backed away in astonishment.

"How did... jyou vere... Never mind!" Vanya shouted, overwhelmed. Another man ran up to her, and she gave him a foot to the face for his troubles. Kanda smacked down another militia man, and he growled out, "How close are Din and Ellis?" Vanya picked up an abandoned rifle, checked the ammo, and cocked it. She looked up and aimed before answering, "Do not knoh. Last I saw, zey vere at zat tree dere." She pointed with the gun towards an acacia, and just as she did, a man peeked out from around it to shoot. She hit the tree, scaring the man back behind the trunk. She cursed in Russian as Kanda kept a look out.

"And the explosives?" he asked.

"All of it iss some sort of nyew stohff, dynamite I zink. As long as nobody sets it off, ve're good," she stated. She'd regained her composure quickly, that Kanda had to hand to her. Actually, that wasn't _all _he had to hand to her.

"Here. Babysit," he stated, handing a crying Nthanda to him. "Careful - he farts." Vanya gave Nthanda a horrified look before flashing an annoyed stare to Kanda. However, he'd already left, and she muttered something about dumb swordsmen before leveling the gun one-handed towards the acacia tree again.

Kanda, meanwhile, had already spotted where Din and Ellis were making their stand. Ellis was loading a shotgun behind Din who was carefully picking off the guys around them, but Kanda could tell that they were running out of ammo by the amount of shells littering the ground. Kanda cut down two men who were attempting to get them from behind, and he slid into place by the Finder and the old woman.

"Any injuries?" he asked. Din shook his head, despite the fact his arm was still in a splint, and Ellis shook her head as well.

"Good," Kanda stated, hauling the shouting and rather angry Ellis over his shoulder. Din immediately bolted after him as they ran across the impromptu battlefield. Gunshots sounded off, and Din ducked on instinct. Kanda actually _ignored _them on instinct as Vanya picked off those that were trying to shoot at the fleeing victims of circumstance. Kanda set Ellis down the minute that they reached the bridge ramparts where Vanya was making her stand. She'd retreated behind the sandbags after she'd been grazed across the cheek, and she was careful about poking her head out into the open air now that the militia knew someone was out from cover and shooting them.

"For goodness sakes - that is NOT how you treat a lady! Do you do this with every woman you know?" Ellis shrieked, pulling her skirts back around her ankles. She dropped the gun like it was covered in snakes, and she added, "Just about gave all of those dirty men a free show, lifting me like that!"

"I saved your life. Giving a show's probably worth that much," Kanda answered back as he took Nthanda from Vanya. The CROW hunkered down next to Kanda, and she growled out, "You're right. He farts." Kanda smirked. Its about time someone else took the whiffs from now on. The farts had sort of developed over time, and Kanda had no idea why the kid got gassy when he was in danger. Maybe it was some sort of self-defense mechanism or something, because he smelled _horrible. _Kanda figured he could gauge just how bad the situation was by giving Nthanda a good sniff.

"Eh, Kanda. Noht ta press ya 'r nuttin', but we gotta _go. _Dem's gettin' closer to deh bridge, 'n it only take a bullet t'set all that off," Din stated. Kanda nodded in agreement. _Finally. _Someone sane was on his side.

Kanda got up and headed for the bridge, and the rest followed suit. Nthanda hung on to Kanda's front, fingers gripping the fabric as he sniffled. Just as he set foot on the bridge, though, he sucked in a deep breath in surprise.

The bridge was only wide enough for the train. On either side there was about six inches of wood past the tracks, and below that there was a drop that spanned for probably a good half-mile. There was a tiny glimmer of a ribbon that _might _be a river, but he was so far up he couldn't tell. All of a sudden, he felt like he was a little toohigh up, and he felt sweat prick at his lower back. He pushed the unease to the back of his mind, and he walked confidently down the middle of the tracks.

"Keep to the middle, and you'll be fine. Where's the payload?" Kanda shouted. Din pointed ahead as he cautiously took his first couple steps. Kanda looked ahead, and he saw it, a massive bundle of something that was sitting on top of the tracks along with several barrels of what was no doubt gunpowder to help it along just in case the dynamite didn't do the job. There was probably enough to blow a tunnel through a mountain. A shot zinged off the tracks, and Din jumped back, looking behind him. The militia men weren't taking chances. If they hit the payload and they were too close, they'd end up in the middle of the explosion as well.

"Hurry it up. I don't want bullet holes," Kanda complained as he trekked across the bridge. The wind picked up, and Kanda's unease heightened, but he just continued to put one foot in front of the other. He could hear Ellis making small, frightened noises every time the wind pushed her, and he resisted the urge to groan. He scrambled over the pile of explosives with a careless demeanor, sincerely freaking out both Ellis and Din. Vanya helped Din and Ellis over the explosives, and Kanda was already near the end of the bridge.

"Zenk jyou four helping me," she muttered under her breath as she neared the end of the bridge, and Kanda shouted back from the gorge's cliff, "I heard that!"

The last word left his mouth, and all hell broke loose.

Din and Ellis ducked on the tracks as the gunpowder very suddenly exploded. Vanya was caught in the fireball, and she fell sideways off the bridge to avoid it. She only managed to save herself by getting stuck in between the supports underneath. A stray piece of buckshot had actually sparked a small trace of gunpowder, which was enough to catch on a canvas bag holding more gunpowder. The flame continued until, finally, it reached the gunpowder inside. It ignited the rest of the powder, setting it off, yet miraculously had not set off the dynamite... At least, not yet. The bag was still burning, and the dynamite was inside of a large, covered canvas. The militia men weren't all that smart, and they'd thought that it might rain and leave the dynamite unusable, a gross miscalculation, but lucky for the travelers, seeing as it had managed to keep the dynamite from exploding.

Kanda watched as Din and Ellis struggled to stand back up. Vanya was nowhere to be seen, but he could hear her. Nthanda gurgled frantically as he tried to scramble out of Kanda's arms. The baby pointed to the two trapped on the bridge, crying. Ellis and Din finally began scrambling, though drunkenly, and Kanda ran across the bridge as fast as he could manage.

"Oh not this again," Ellis grumbled as Kanda hurtled towards her. She was once more hauled over his shoulder, kicking and screaming her indignation, and Din was shouldered across as Kanda urged him forwards.

As he set them down, Ellis gasped.

"Vanya. She's stuck down there. Underneath, in the support beams," she breathlessly said, shaking as she pointed below. Kanda looked across to the payload, gauging how long it would take for it to explode. He still had a little time, but there was a good chance that the bridge would blow, and the entire thing would come down.

"We can't leave her there, Kanda," Ellis stated firmly. Din looked in between Kanda and Ellis. He was caught between these two boulders, not sure where to go. They were glaring daggers. Din hated to say it, but he could see why Kanda would be skeptical. It didn't sound like Vanya could be saved, and what was the point if more of them were going to die? Still, to leave her there sounded so cruel. As if to punctuate this point, Din heard screaming from below as the entire bridge swayed with the light breeze passing through the gorge. She must've been pinched in between the two supports, and the leaning bridge was crushing her.

"She's a CROW. She's been prepared for death since the day she was chosen," Kanda growled, and he turned away from the gorge. Ellis stood there, flickering her gaze in between the bridge and the swordsman who was walking away. Over his shoulder, Nthanda cried, reaching towards the bridge. The dark baby wailed, but his wails grew softer and softer as Kanda walked farther and farther. Din stared at the bridge, his gaze solemn.

"He mean what he seh," Din stated, his voice almost inaudible. "We leave." Ellis rubbed the bridge of her nose as the men across the gorge began to retreat away from what they knew was an impending explosion. Her shoulders shook, and she shouted, "Is this what they taught you? To forget everyone else and save yourself? To leave an innocent young woman to die?"

"No one is innocent!" Kanda shouted, never turning around. Ellis was taken aback. Kanda still had his back turned, and his shoulders were tensed.

"No one... is innocent," he ground out.

"AAAAGH!" He flinched infinitesimally at the sound of the CROW screaming in pain, but he trudged on. Nthanda continued to scream and cry over his shoulder.

_You really are a bastard._ Nthanda's mother's tone was snide. It seemed everyone was against him today.

"What would you have me do? Kill myself so that those two can wander around and eventually die out there along with your son?" Kanda asked the spirit. She was silent. She couldn't argue with his logic. He had a point.

Nthanda suddenly stopped crying, and leaned back away from Kanda. The samurai looked into the tyke's eyes, and he gave him the usual death stare. Nthanda and Kanda stayed like that before Nthanda suddenly yanked on Kanda's hair.

"OW OW OUCH! DAMN IT, LET GO! FOR THE LOVE OF - HOLY -" Nthanda continued to tug and pull on Kanda's hair, and Kanda kept trying to untangle the kid from his silky locks. This was not what he was expecting!

"Kanda! I tink deh babe wohnts ya t'save Missus Vanya," Din shouted. Kanda turned back to look at the bridge, and the nitroglycerin finally decided to head towards its foregone conclusion and explode. The ground shook, and suddenly pieces of the bridge fell into the ravine. Vanya screamed, a high pitched keening noise.

"Too late," Kanda grumbled as Nthanda continued to fight and tear at his hair. As he watched more chunks of the bridge burn and crumble, a passage came to mind, something he remembered as if from a half-forgotten dream. He'd recited this line so many times...

_To the Lord, our Father, hallowed be thy name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven, give us this day our daily bread, forgive us our debts as we -_

"- Forgive our debtors, and do not lead us into temptation, but save us from evil," Kanda recited almost half-consciously as he watched the middle section give way completely. Now, only the supports and the parts of the bridge above it were left. Kanda realized he could still hear Vanya screaming, meaning she was still alive.

That line had come from the Bible, he knew. It was the Lord's Prayer, and he'd heard it thousands of times as a kid, seeing as he'd lived in such a Catholic-saturated environment, but he had never thought that he'd actually remember it. There was that nostalgia, though, and he remembered... something else -

The world, once again, shifted. His eyes were no longer his own - they were a different set, made of different morals and values. They were... brighter. Deeper. He turned his head towards Nthanda, the baby still entangled with a strand of hair, and he looked back at the bridge. That woman was another life, another potential light. She was yet another person who had a chance in this world and -

Just as soon as the shift had happened, it switched back again at a disorienting rate, and Kanda almost had to gasp. The world turned dark again, he was himself, and yet... that old mindset lingered. He had once seen the world as this bright, new place where someone was watching over everybody, giving hope. To believe that now was folly after everything he'd seen, and yet he couldn't let go of it. In that moment, Vanya became a person, not another liability. He hated it, because he felt like his judgement was both clouded and sharpened at the same time. It was... confusing.

And Nthanda still refused to let go of his hair. It seemed like he was going to have to save her if he wanted his hair back.

"Damn," he growled. He stalked back with Nthanda in tow, the baby surprisingly silent. Kanda handed the baby to Ellis, and she blinked in surprise.

"W-what do you think you're doing? You can't... Kanda! That bridge is -!"

"Yeah, yeah, I know," he retorted irately. He looked over the lip of the gorge, staring down. Vanya was trapped nearly three stories down in a mess of timbers. Luckily, several pieces had allowed the gap she was stuck in to remain open rather than collapse in on itself. It would be hazardous trying to get to her, but it was doable.

"What do we do if you -" Kanda looked back at Ellis with a sardonic look, shutting her up. He muttered, "I'm coming back, don't worry. I don't hate myself enough to commit suicide for somebody else." He ran across the bridge, swinging himself under to the nearest support. The beam was as thick around as his waist, and it held him securely as he clambered down towards the incapacitated CROW. As he neared her, he could see her situation was bad. Her arm was stuck between two beams, her bandages were splotched a dark red, and her side was completely jammed into the crack between the two, breaking supports. The bridge swayed, and she screamed as the two supports rubbed against each other.

"Hang on a second! I'm coming to get you!" Kanda shouted over the creaking of the bridge. There were still burning parts to the bridge, but they were above him. They weren't his immediate problem.

"K-kanda...? Vat are jyou doing! Go back!" she screamed back. Kanda ignored her commands, which definitely made this rescue easier, and he shouted back, "Shut up and stop fantasizing about being a martyr! I'm getting you whether you like it or not!" He finally reached her, screeching to a halt just above where she was trapped. He carefully navigated the beams and grabbed the back of her bandages. Blood was slick over his fingers, and he was suddenly struck by the possibility that he might drop her.

"Come on, help me, idiot! I can't do this by myself!" Actually, he could, but it'd be much more tiresome on him if he did. He might not have the energy to take them both back to the top of the bridge. Suddenly, the bridge rocked, and Vanya came free. She nearly fell out into the ravine, but he managed to haul her out before the beams could completely separate. She clung to him as best she could with her free arm, obviously irked by the contact, and looking more than a bit awkward, but nevertheless hanging on for dear life.

"Leave?" she gasped. Kanda nodded wordlessly, bounding between the beams as the entire structure shuddered. He gritted his teeth as he realized that the entire thing would be coming down soon. There was a roar as the bridge pieces on the other side dropped into the gorge. Kanda was running out of time.

"Hurry up! The thing is collapsing!" Ellis shouted frantically, and Kanda resisted the urge to shout something profane at her. Was he not already getting them out of this mess? He'd _volunteered, _for the love of the Pope, and it wasn't enough! Kanda suddenly reached the lip of the gorge, pulling himself and his cargo over easily. He deposited her on the ground none-too-gently, and he stared at the bridge behind him. He expected it to drop... but it didn't. It sat there and burned.

He deadpanned. That was just perfect. He didn't even _need _to hurry. All that energy for nothing.

"How are you dear? Are you all right? That looks awfully nasty. Oh... oh dear..." Ellis put her hand to her mouth as she began to inspect Vanya's wounds, holding Nthanda off at her hip while she looked her over. Kanda peered over her shoulder at the girl, casting his shadow over her. Externally, he showed no surprise, but inside he couldn't help but feel sick.

The flesh of her arm had been pulped. It would take months, if not a year, for it to fully heal to capacity. Her side was bruised and completely purple, and blood leaked into pools from wounds underneath the bandages. Her tunic was completely shredded, and it appeared that she'd broken several ribs. She was perspiring heavily, and her breathing was shallow. Her face was incredibly pale, her eyes half-lidded. Her short hair stuck to her face in strands, blood plastering it to her skin.

"I'll need to take care of this the minute we find a water source or an outpost. There's nothing we can do right now. Din, can you carry her?" Ellis asked, and Din looked doubtful. He scratched his head, and he admitted, "Dunno, mum. M'arm's not up t'snuff, y'know." Kanda reached over and picked up the mostly inert CROW without a word. Ellis blinked, surprised at his sudden altruism.

"We're wasting daylight. I didn't climb all the way down there for nothing," Kanda grumbled to the three. Ellis stood up quickly, toddling as fast as her poor, arthritic knees would allow her. She wanted to take advantage of this sudden burst of good will for as long as it lasted. It wasn't very often that this man did something so ... _nice, _and she had the feeling that he'd be back to his regular self very soon. Din followed behind rather suspiciously, almost as if he were afraid of the ground he walked on.

Strange to think all this happened in only thirty minutes.

* * *

><p>"How long?" Kanda asked, leaning against a wall. They were in a small bungalow at a depot along the tracks. It was basically a very small, very poor town with a single, haggard doctor who looked like he could give Methuselah a run for his money in age. He was dark-skinned, dark-eyed, and he had so many creases that he put a pug to shame. Still, the people of the town looked healthy, if dirty and care-worn. It seemed that Vanya was going to be in good hands.<p>

The man didn't speak the usual South African pigeon-English, and Din had had to try several different, roundabout phrases to get his meaning across. Dingane spoke with the man, and much hand-gesturing, confused looks, and eye-widened realizations passed between them, and Din finally stated, "He seh a half-year. She's hurt bad, Mistuh Kanda. He don't tink she'll mek it t'rough d'night. Lost too much blood, 'n he not have any equipment for a transfusion. He seh he keep her where she is."

"Is there anything we can do about that?" Ellis asked quietly, softly concerned. Her eyes crinkled around the edges, and she held Nthanda closer. The young babe gummed one of her fingers, and she leaned her cheek into his head. Kanda couldn't help but notice the resemblance in stance to a grandmother with her grandchild. She was definitely the better parent.

Din translated painstakingly slow, and he finally answered back, "He seh nohthin'. Jus' dat we stay wit her for a while. She may die in th'night, she may not. Dunno." He shrugged, and he took off his pack.

The old man rubbed his chin with crooked, wrinkled fingers at a quick, stiff pace. He took Vanya's limpid hand, checking her pulse with shaking fingers. He licked his cracked lips, and Vanya, who up to this point had been mostly unconscious, opened her eyes wide.

Kanda moved at just the right pace. He'd seen her fingers twitch, and intuition had done the rest. The old man stared at the immobile hand underneath his chin, held back only by Kanda's tensed hold. Her fingers twitched for the doctor's throat, and Kanda glared at Vanya. Her eyes were crazed and wide, but as she took deep breaths, she began to take stock of her surroundings. Her arm went limp, leaving Kanda with only a flopping hand and wrist. He carelessly tossed her arm back on to the bed as Vanya moaned and turned her head away towards the wall.

"Tch. CROW," Kanda snorted. The old man's jaw shivered as he mumbled in his native tongue before he shook his head. He got up slowly, and he said a few things to Din. Dingane fought to translate, and he finally stated, "He seh a storm's coming dis way. Big storm, make lots of rain. We need ta stay here, unless we got things for hard travelin', which... we don't." Din looked slightly sheepish as he admitted the last part, some of his smile creeping back on to his face.

He looked at Ellis, and Ellis stared back at him. The two seemed to come to an unspoken agreement as Nthanda babbled and waved an arm in Vanya's direction.

"We'll stay until the storm passes over," Kanda said. "No use practically killing ourselves in the rain." Kanda may be tough, but he wasn't stupid. If good weather had prevailed, he'd have had no qualms with leaving this minute, with or without Ellis and Din. However, even he wasn't willing to go into unknown territory with a baby he was _supposed _to be bringing back alive through a storm. Not to mention, Akuma loved bad weather - it didn't affect their ability to see and fight, but it sure was a pain in the tuchus for Exorcists."

"I'll ask where we stay," Din said, and he and the old man walked outside, attempting to find a meeting of ideas. When they'd left, Ellis promptly handed Nthanda over to his original caretaker, and Kanda just managed to catch him with a shocked grunt, seeing as he was surprised by the sudden switch. The old woman knelt next to Vanya, and Kanda sighed, "Granny, you don't want to end up that close to her. You saw her almost take out the old man's windpipe, didn't you?"

"Oh, hush. I'm not blind to my own mortality. Besides, I'm a more recognizable face than Mr. Wrinkles out there," Ellis muttered, never taking her eyes off of Vanya. She suddenly put on her pair of bifocals, squinting at some of the markings around Vanya's wrists. The woman was moaning softly, muttering words in Russian and gibberish. Kanda walked over, his curiosity getting the better of him. Nthanda garbled half-formed words as he customarily wound his hands in Kanda's long strands. He tugged, and Kanda winced.

"Ouch! This is getting to be a bad habit," Kanda muttered. Ellis shushed him, and Kanda glowered in silence as the old woman continued to examine the young Central member. She tutted, and she said, "That doctor didn't do too terribly with her, but there are a few things we can fix here and there. I had a stint as a nurse, you know." Kanda rolled his eyes as she went into a spiel about a man with a sliver of fence post in his leg that was nearly a foot long, and he decided to take a look at Vanya himself.

She was heavily bandaged, and she was still in quite a lot of pain. They had local anesthetics here in the town, and they'd only used a few on the bigger wounds around her side and her arm. The arm looked worse than it actually was. It had been scraped completely raw, rather than pulped as Kanda originally thought. Her side, however, was a piece of meat. The skin had been ripped, the muscle beneath had been ground until it resembled the inside of a sausage, and several of the ribs had been cracked. No doubt, that painkiller had worn off by now, and that was why she was suddenly so active.

Kanda caught sight of something on the side of Vanya's neck, and his eyes narrowed to slits.

"And then there was the time where there was a man who took a pair of shears to his own - OOF! Someone had better teach you manners, pushing around old women like you do!" Ellis protested, bustling to the side as Kanda leaned over Vanya, turning her head carefully to the side so he could get a better look at what was on her neck. His eyebrows nearly met, and Nthanda fell silent as Ellis looked over his shoulder.

Vanya had a strange mark etched in the skin of her neck. It was just behind her ear, mostly out of sight, but it most definitely was there. The mark was made up of scar tissue, silvery-white against her ghostly skin. It looked almost like a wax seal imbedded in the skin. It pictured a pair of horns over a name that Kanda couldn't read circled by more indecipherable words. Kanda straightened up, blinking as he realized that the effect of the scar tissue caused the words to seem to move.

"The child has an awfully strange taste in art," Ellis muttered. "But then again, wisdom is wasted on youth." She shrugged, waddling over to a chair and sitting down with a great _fwump _of her many skirts. She sighed.

"I'll be glad to have a bath after all this," she groaned, leaning back in her chair and stretching out her legs. Kanda grunted assent, and Nthanda reached for Vanya. The samurai had to restrain the very squirmy child before he fell on top of the woman, and he carried him outside. Looking up at the sky, Kanda could tell the old man was right. Dark clouds threatened, a whitish gray amalgamation hovering over much of the horizon and parts of the town. He could see rain off to the south, and he figured that if they'd waited the militia men out, their gunpowder would've gotten soggy and they wouldn't be in this mess.

As the clouds thundered and night began to creep, Kanda heard noises far off in the distance over the hills. This didn't surprise him as he unhooked Mugen from its sheath and had it at the ready. Nthanda would go back to Ellis in a minute.

Akuma were afoot. Man if he didn't hate fighting in the rain.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** Whoohoo! Finally, another chapter out and about. I've been working on this one for a quite a while. I had to do a lot of retooling and rewriting for this one. For whatever reason, I couldn't get what I wanted out of what I'd written...

Hopefully, it's much better now. So, big thanks go to my reviewers, Feline Exorcist, EXO718, karina001, and 3 akuma 3. I don't have any new subscribers or favoriteers, but hey, 's all good, right?

Now: on to the discussion questions! _Would you like to see more Akuma in the story? Is Vanya well characterized? Do you believe that Nthanda's role in the story is active or passive? Do any of the characters exhibit signs of Mary Sue Syndrome? How would everyone like a sort of 'Ask The Characters' bulletin at the end of the story? How many would enjoy a small omake theater, or at least a bit of humor here and there? Is the series dark or light-hearted? What do you make of the strange voices?_

That's honestly all I've got for now. I think I'll be doing monthly updates from now on (things have gotten hectic with contests, spring testing, and homework), so I apologize for the long wait (though it's not like you don't wait anyways - I'm a horridly slow writer).

God bless and good reading to you all! Be careful of centipedes! They sting.


	7. Passing Through

He stood there, listening carefully. Marie had taught him how to decipher just how far away an Akuma happened to be by the shouts of people and the inevitable gunshots. Though every sense told him that the Akuma were out and about, he couldn't hear them for anything. They must still be hidden. He looked down at Nthanda, who was staring intently at the sky, almost entranced. The child was quiet - Kanda liked that he was remaining so silent. It allowed him time to think. If there was anything Kanda didn't like, it was noise. Then again, if there was anything Kanda didn't like, it was _most everything_ he came in contact with...

"Kanda? Kanda!" The young Exorcist sighed. Ellis was bleating after him again. It figured. He turned around, ignoring the feeling that there was something coming from over the gentle hills that encircled the edge of the town. The rain was just starting, and a few of the drops fell on Nthanda's nose. The small baby wrinkled his nose, looking morosely up at the sky. Kanda casually walked back into the doctor's hut, passing Din and the old man, both talking rapidly, as he walked through the threshold.

Ellis was standing over Vanya, biting a finger. The old woman looked awfully pale, and Kanda wondered what had suddenly made her blanch to the color of a sheet. She looked up at Kanda, and for a moment he saw how truly old Ellis was. A pang went through him, but he wasn't able to pinpoint that pang. He dismissed it, despite the fact that the feeling continued to linger.

"Look at this," Ellis stated breathlessly. She began to uncover some of the bandages over Vanya's chest. The woman was perspiring heavily, her eyes rolling underneath her eyelids. Kanda felt strangely nervous now that Ellis was uncovering her, almost like he was about to do something he shouldn't, but halfway down she stopped, revealing a very bright, very blood-soaked engraving in the flesh. It was old - in fact, it was scarred over completely, despite the fact it was a livid purple color.

"I found similar marks on her feet and her shoulders. This is... This is very strange, Kanda. I don't understand what these mean, and I've never seen them before. Have the CROW always had these?" Ellis asked, her brow furrowed heavily over her lined face. She looked very tired. Distantly, they heard a roll of thunder, and Vanya turned her head to the side, showing the horned marking yet again.

These marks were not quite as similar as the mark on her neck. They were a simplified pair of horns with a seal-like engraving of letters around them, and Kanda scratched the back of his neck in thought. Nthanda strained towards the young woman on the bed, holding out his arms, and Kanda finally relinquished. The baby sat down next to her, leaning curiously over her as far as his little body would allow without toppling over.

"I don't remember CROW having markings other than these," Kanda said, pointing to the CROW's forehead where she wore four dots, two stacked on two. Ellis slapped his hand, and Kanda glared.

"What?" he snapped. Ellis stood up straight, crossing her arms.

"Pointing is rude. Someone has not taught you your manners, obviously. You're a very brutish young man," Ellis said, her high-born British accent even more pronounced than usual. Kanda snorted derisively.

"You think I need tact when I'm about to kill a demon?" Kanda grounded out. Thunder rolled again, this time much closer, and Ellis looked outside. She tottered near the window, and she groaned.

"My arthritis is going to kill me tonight," she muttered under her breath. Kanda ignored her, and he walked towards Vanya's feet. He lifted the cover off of them, and he inspected the horned mark. He felt like he should be able to remember these. They seemed familiar, but he had no idea what they could mean... Kanda wasn't exactly the intellectual type. He felt that knowing too much actually made you _dumber _rather than smarter, at least in the realm of battle. Thinking too much could just as easily get you killed as thinking too little.

It was a wonder Lavi was still alive, in any case. He did equal amounts of both.

Suddenly, that gave him an idea. Perhaps Lavi would know what these marks meant. He _was _a Bookman after all, if only an apprentice Bookman. He had had to have some sort of idea on the meaning of sigils and the like.

There was the loud _ratatatatata _of a machine gun and shouting outside, and Kanda whirled around. He knew something had been after them. Bad weather always had Akuma on its tail... Especially in a little dirt outpost like this, where the people were superstitious and life was bad enough as it was. Kanda picked up his sword, and he began towards the door. Ellis watched with wide eyes, muttering, "Where are you going? Kanda? What do you - Aren't you going to take the baby?"

Kanda ignored her as he stood in the middle of the street, and he turned his head towards the clouds. Sure enough, over the hills he'd been surveying only moments before he could hear the sounds of gunfire and shouting. His eyes narrowed, and Ellis bustled out of the doctor's hut with Nthanda in her arms. From a distance, the samurai could see Din and the old doctor approaching.

"What is it? What's the matter?" Ellis asked briskly, though he could tell that she had a good idea. He grunted, "Akuma." They were silent as they listened to the ruckus.

"How long -"

"Probably ten minutes. If you can, evacuate. If not, try to evacuate. I'll deal with them," Kanda said. Nthanda babbled angrily, almost distraught, as Ellis started to walk away.

And then, suddenly, there was a loud _pop, _and Ellis screamed. Kanda did a half-spin, wondering if he'd gauged the distance of the Akuma incorrectly, but Ellis was standing there, completely unharmed... minus a dark-skinned baby.

"Oh... Oh Lord in heaven, what... how did he...? He was just here! He was just in my...arms..." Ellis gasped, looking around her, grabbing her skirts in dismay as she realized that the baby had just disappeared. Kanda felt his heart constrict, realizing that his charge had just disappeared and could possibly be anywhere.

There was another loud _pop,_ and Kanda just had enough time to run forward and catch the falling Nthanda. The baby gurgled in annoyance, yanking on Kanda's hair in displeasure. Ellis and Kanda were quiet as they stared at the baby. They shared another look, thoughts racing through their heads before the music of terror wafted over the hills into their ears.

"Kanda! What do we do?" Din shouted, having witnessed everything, yet remaining unfazed. Kanda suddenly felt overwhelmed, but the feeling disappated quickly. He could handle this. He wouldn't have time to risk giving Nthanda to Ellis for safekeeping, not if the tyke was going to repeatedly disappear and reappear in random places. His eyes flickered between the approaching horde and the three questioning faces behind him. Who died and made him leader?

Odd. He'd always liked the fact people listened to him. He just didn't like being responsible for other people's lives.

"Run!" Kanda shouted, pointing back towards the tracks. Ellis, Din, and the old man took off, shouting warning to the people in the town. Unfortunately, there was still an entire other half of the town that couldn't be warned, not unless Kanda went _right then _and shouted at every house for the people to run and get out. Of course, he could let the Akuma do the job for him, but unfortunately that included some collateral damage. He grumbled to himself belligerently as he began to run.

He probably made it about of a quarter of a mile, shouting his lungs out for the people to get out and start running before he encountered his first few Akuma. People had already started towards the tracks after hearing the machine gun fire, probably thinking the noise was guerillas on the move. He had to give them credit - they knew how to leave in a hurry.

As people flew past him carrying all their worldly belongings, Kanda noticed a large figure farther off in the background. His eyes widened as he realized that the people in the street were coming very close to being obliterated. Level Twos liked to play, and they played rough. The young man readied his sword, feeling his entire body tense for the moment when it would strike. He wouldn't know what _exactly _that strike would be, but he at least had to be ready for it. Nthanda gurgled, almost with excitement, and Kanda had to smirk. The kid was starting to develop a taste for battle. Kanda must be rubbing off on him.

The Akuma chucked a massive whip made of metal and glass down the street, killing three people in quick succession as well as bringing down a hut. Kanda had had no time to stop it, and he realized the deaths with a wince. He jumped over the whip as it swung back his way. So this was going to be a game of Jake the Snake? So be it. Kanda could do this all night long.

The Akuma was probably ten feet tall with a body that looked like it was made out of chucked car parts. Its face was a twisted mask of glee. It giggled (ugh, the giggling type, again) as it slung the whip across the ground, breaking the leg of another running passerby. Kanda braved the whip to drag the screaming victim inside the doorway of a hut where they were unlikely to be caught in the crossfire.

"Ready, kid?" Kanda grumbled. Nthanda seemed to answer with a swift, sharp tug to his hair, and he decided to take that as a yes. He dashed out into the street, bringing his sword into a low sweeping arc. The sword whistled as it traveled through the air, and it suddenly clanged as the blade cut through the whip like scissors through paper. The Akuma gave a rather offended rant on the abuse of his weapon, and Kanda didn't wait for him to finish.

His sword ate through the Akuma's chest before he could end his rant of displeasure, and the fighter felt a satisfied thrum as the Akuma dropped to the ground. Nthanda attempted to crawl out of his place in the crook of Kanda's elbow to see the dead Akuma with curious and oddly smug expression. Kanda had to hold him firmly to keep him from falling out of his grip. The baby was almost too hot to hold at this point, and Kanda wondered if this had to do with his sudden teleportation. Dread flooded him as he realized that Nthanda might just get sick again like the last time, but before he could follow this train of thought, another Akuma sprayed a mist of bullets ahead of him.

For the next hour and a half, he fought street to street. There were probably twenty-five Akuma in all. He'd only fought about fifteen Level Two Akuma, and the other ten had been regular Level Ones that took about five seconds to get rid of. It was notable, though, that it was a little harder than usual to fight considering he was swinging one-handed. That wasn't to say that he was outclassed - Kanda could easily beat Level Ones and Twos with one hand preoccupied, but carrying around a baby, rather than having him slung around his neck in a scarf, was a bit cumbersome.

Sweaty, bloody, and more than a little annoyed, Kanda surveyed the quiet streets. There were plenty of downed buildings, and he could hear the sounds of people yelling and searching for one another, but other than that the streets seemed mostly empty. Rain had begun to pitter-patter nearly thirty minutes ago, and it was starting to wash off the blood. Nthanda sucked on his thumb and tranquilly sat in the crook of Kanda's home as if he was perfectly at home there. The kid really _had _gotten used to battle. It used to be that he'd scream and cry like it was the end of the world. Humans could get used to anything, given time.

"Tired yet?" Kanda asked Nthanda, and the boy ignored him to squirm while grumbling in a rather annoyed tone. Suddenly, a noise caught Kanda's attention. He frowned for all of a moment -

Kanda was thrown down the street as a massive blast of _something _hit the street. The samurai had all of thirty seconds to curl up around the baby and shift his weight so that his crash into the cobblestones would only result in a bad case of road rash rather than a very crushed child. Kanda hastily stood as his vision swam. Contrary to popular belief, Kanda was _not _omniscient, and he was _not _indestructible. He just happened to be rather... stubborn. It took longer than most thought for him to get back up after a rather harrowing hit. That had definitely counted as a harrowing hit.

A Level Three walked down the street rather nonchalantly, every building on that street in ruins. It must have detonated some sort of high-energy blast, probably from one of the nodules on its arms. Kanda took note that there were five of them, and one of the spaces was empty. As he gathered his wits, the empty space was beginning to fill with a black substance, becoming another nodule. Kanda's eyes flickered to the helmet of the Akuma, staring into the eye holes. A deep, almost dark light shone from within.

Allen said that souls of the dead were trapped by the Earl and used to power the machines. Standing here, panting and half-way confused, he could believe that. Those eyes looked hungry, and underneath the hunger he could see a buried pain.

Those eyes looked like a mirror of his own. Hungry and pained.

"Why, hello Exorcist," the Akuma said. Kanda immediately hated the high-born English accent. It definitely reminded him of a certain Exorcist whom he wouldn't mind stabbing... That just made it easier to kill. The Exorcist's lip curled, and he didn't deign to answer. Instead, he shifted a rather unhappy, screaming Nthanda to his hip as the rain washed off the blood from his shirt and his face. His arm was already locked around the baby, not so hard as to crush him yet just enough to keep the baby from flying out of his grip if he took a lightning dash.

The Akuma didn't wait. It flew towards him, and Kanda blocked with a swift sweep to the left. The Akuma swung an arm, and Kanda shifted his head to the right to miss the punch. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw one of the nodes closest to his head glow, and his eyes widened as he realized he'd fallen for a trap.

He was thrown to the left as his head took the brunt of the blast. If Nthanda hadn't been to his right, he would've killed him. Kanda felt animal-like panic grip him as he realized that this was getting too dangerous. He couldn't just continue fighting with Nthanda trapped on one arm and his other arm preoccupied with blocking. He couldn't hardly get a cut in edgewise!

This blow hadn't been nearly as bad as the previous one. Kanda had only been knocked over rather than thrown so hard that his feet left the ground. He'd been able to keep his feet under him, and he used his momentum to propel him through the rubble to his left and into the next street. He ran back down this street, hiding behind one of the huts that were still standing.

He was very close to the doctor's hut. Perhaps he could run there before the Akuma took notice of his position and drop Kanda off with Vanya. As incapacitated as she was, she was probably better defense than leaving Nthanda in the open. Nthanda had ceased crying, merely hiccuping now and again. The baby had tear tracks down his dirty face, and Kanda knew he couldn't just keep throwing the kid in danger like this. Then again, the baby _attracted _danger, but...

Kanda took a running lead down the street, turning down several more demolished streets, and he skidded to a stop in front of the doctor's hut near the tracks. He barreled into the house. Vanya was still lying there, forehead covered in beads of sweat. Her face contorted as pain took hold of her, and she turned her head at the sound of Kanda's hurried footsteps. Her eyes cracked open, and she looked up at him with a look of distrust. Well, he _was _covered in blood and carrying a sword.

He placed Nthanda down between her and the wall. Nthanda looked up at him almost forlornly, and he reached for Kanda. The samurai felt a strange tugging sensation somewhere immaterial, but he had no time to think about it.

"Take care of him while I'm gone," he ordered. Vanya panted, and she curled up around the baby. It was obvious she didn't think that she would survive as she tucked the screaming child in the curve of her body. Her body was tense, and her bandages were already bloody again. She wasn't even going to bother to fight. All she could do was protect the target.

"Go," she said. In that moment, he hated her suddenly fatalistic tone, but they were wasting time. Kanda ran back outside, stopping in the middle of the street. His thoughts cycled through several of his default questions, such as exits, entrances, possible hide-outs, and angles of fire. These cycles of queries were intermittently interrupted by other thoughts, such as the amount of civilians still running through the streets of the outpost and whether Din and Ellis had made it out. Nevertheless, his mind stayed on task as he tried to come up with some sort of game plan. His grip tightened, and he felt strangely naked without Nthanda. The baby had practically become part of his fighting style by now.

The samurai heard the familiar crunch of feet on rubble, and he raised his sword to block a nodule that was flying towards him. It exploded on impact with the flat of the blade, and Kanda was again blown back. Part of his skin crumbled to char, and he winced as he felt the top layer of his epidermis take a beating. The Akuma advanced, and Kanda entered a deadly dance of _parry, slash, block, duck, dodge. _Every nodule the Akuma used seemed to grow stronger as the fighting continued, and Kanda realized that the Akuma was pushing him back towards the doctor's hut. His goal wasn't just simple human extermination - he had a goal in mind.

Kanda entrapped the Akuma in a grinding block that halted the Akuma's push forward. Kanda hissed, "What are you after?" The Akuma attempted a swift hook to Kanda's abdomen, but the samurai spun out of the block with an economic swipe at the Akuma's forearm, deftly cutting off a node. It flew away, and it hit a building with a rocking explosion. The Akuma slapped a hand over the empty space, and it glared.

"You'll pay for that. Those are difficult to regenerate," it grumbled irately, and Kanda spit.

"Make me," he answered childishly. Again, the dance of battle took them over as Kanda single-mindedly pushed the Akuma back down the street away from the doctor's hut. Kanda couldn't just bail out in this case. He _had _to fight because this Akuma was not going to follow him. It'd take off after the defenseless woman and child in that building behind him, and Kanda would have blood on his hands. He winced as he wondered how many other people had died due to his neglect. Come to think of it, not many. Perhaps Kanda's bloodlust had an actual purpose.

Suddenly, Kanda was aware of a sharp pain. He looked down at the source of the pain, and he found a node clinging to his shirt. His eyes widened as it extended legs and dug them into his skin, effectively pinning itself to his side. He immediately chopped off the offending node with a flick of his wrist, taking a good chunk of flesh with it, and a rain of blood waterfalled over his pants. He let out a low grunt of pain as he flipped the node towards the street. Like the others, it exploded upon impact with the hard ground, and Kanda idly wondered why it hadn't immediately detonated while attached to him.

The answer came when a hand grasped around his neck and shoved him face-first into a wall. He screamed as the hand dug into his neck, breaking the skin and chewing down through the meat. He scrabbled to reach his sword, but it had fallen at his feet. He pushed against the hand, but his strength was flagging.

He wasn't indestructible... He wasn't omniscient... And he wasn't immortal either.

"Ah, Exorcist. I've heard about you. I've heard about just how strong you are. I've heard about how fast you are. I've studied you for some time, especially after you killed my dear comrade back at the train station. You've been a little thorn in my party's side for quite a while. Kanda Yu, correct?" The Akuma's civilized accent was a dark irony with the brutal treatment the Akuma was doling out. Kanda could feel the fingers tightening, creating ruts in his flesh, and he knew it would be an absolute _pain _when the holes finally grew back in.

"And you know what? I've had fun with you, too. I'm sort of sad to see you go, honestly. But, orders are orders. If I don't get rid of you, I'll never get rid of the little tyke either. And we can't have that, can we?" the Akuma said silkily, and it removed a single node from its arm. It clicked a button on the top of the node, and Kanda felt a searing pain in his side as it was jammed into the wound. He screamed as the Akuma shoved it for good measure.

"This will detonate in a matter of seconds after I let go of you. Do try to stay alive long enough to watch the execution. You've never lived until you've witnessed a good baby bashing," the Akuma said, and Kanda was suddenly released. Kanda stayed propped on his knees, struggling to remove the bomb inside of his wound and failing. He looked back in horror as he saw the Akuma calmly stroll up to the house and knock on the door.

Intense pain, after that. All he could feel was an intense burning sensation. His vision swam as he realized he was lying on the ground now. Blood was in his nose. His ears were leaking fluid, and his head was wet with rain. His body was a broken machine, struggling to work. Part of his mind remained clinical as the rest of him clumsily fought for reason. The bomb had detonated from inside of him, and now... Oh, God, he didn't want to see what was wrong with him. He didn't want to look. All he needed to do was get up... he just had to get up...

"Vanya..." he gasped, knowing she couldn't possibly hear him. _Don't answer the door. Don't answer the door. Stay inside and _**_don't you dare open that door -_**

The door remained shut fast. The Akuma, giving the air of being peeved, blasted the door to splinters, and Kanda tried to stand. He slipped on the slick ground, and he fell heavily on his uninjured side. He rolled onto his stomach, breathing heavily as he blearily watched the Akuma step foot through the threshold.

In that moment, he knew that he had failed. A great despair crossed over him as he fought to stand back up. He managed to stay on his feet, but every step he took was torture, and every beat of his heart kept the tempo for a symphony of agonies. His hand shook as he balled it into a fist, ready to fight the Akuma inside barehanded if it meant completing his mission.

And, just like that, the building was suddenly engulfed in black flames, and the Akuma was ejected from the door like a bullet from a gun.

Kanda stood there, shocked, as the building slowly began to crumble in black-and-white relief, bits of color seeping where the flames were not absolute. Kanda shook, wondering if this was some sort of new trick of the Level Three, but it, too, was on fire. It screamed obscenities as it attempted to put out the flames, and Kanda could only scoff distantly. _Serves it right._

As if there was no end to the shockers, Vanya stepped out of the burning building unharmed, her skin completely blackened as if she'd been dipped in ink. Her eyes stood out in bright relief, the whites of her eyes outlining circles of old blood. In her arms, Nthanda clung unaffected, and Kanda struggled to understand what he was seeing. CROW weren't this powerful. CROW didn't _deal _with this sort of magic. This stank of black, dark spellwork-

-but they were willing to fuse Akuma with CROW, so who says black magic is out of the picture?

Vanya calmly walked across the street, the color of her skin seeming to drain the surrounding light like a black hole. She was a walking abomination. At her breast, Nthanda screeched his little lungs out, no doubt sensitive to the very nature of the magic that influenced Vanya. The scar behind her ear seemed to glow with a bright, bloody red light, and Kanda could only stare as she picked up the Level Three by the scruff of its neck. The Level Three actually managed to punch her in the face, causing her neck to audibly snap, but she seemed completely unfazed as her neck popped back into place, and she stared at the Level Three with a slight smile and endless eyes.

_"Dasvidanya,"_ she said, just loud enough for Kanda to hear as he began to stumble towards the pair. Her words seem to echo through the air, ingraining themselves in its medium and burrowing into Kanda's ears. She kissed the struggling, screaming Akuma's forehead, and the Akuma screamed as black flames began to eat it, swallowing it whole from the point of contact. Within seconds, it was nothing but a charred skeleton, the soul, no doubt, completely destroyed by the tainted spell that had worked itself upon the monster.

By this time, Kanda was only a few feet away, and he pointed his sword at Vanya, idly realizing it _might _be a bad idea to point a weapon at a woman who could probably kill with a touch. Nevertheless, he leveled the katana at the CROW, practically having to dip the sword down to waist height in order to aim the point at her jugular.

"Put... the baby... down," Kanda ground out between clenched teeth. His wound was deep, but it would heal. It would take a while longer than normal, but he would survive. He could still take her out, if he really needed to... hopefully. He wasn't doing so hot right now. Internally, he begged that she'd listen. He didn't have the energy and ability to kill her without possibly maiming Nthanda as well. The baby was still wailing away, stretching his arms towards Kanda. The rain continued to come down, harder now than before. The small woman regarded Kanda with a stare, and he felt his bones chill to ice. That stare was not of the woman he'd traveled with. That stare was from something... older. Impossibly older.

She acquiesced, and Nthanda crawled as fast as he could manage for Kanda's legs. The baby clung to Kanda's pants, crying still as he looked up at Vanya. The blackened woman continued to stare, and the color began to drain from her body. The black gave way to stark white, and as the transformation took over, Vanya seemed to return. Her eyes widened, and she gasped when all the color had leached from her body. She fell to her knees, her side and arm still pulped but significantly better than before. Her breathing gasped in and out as if she'd been drowning, and Kanda didn't hesitate.

He gripped her by the neck and pulled her face to look up at him, and he said, "What was that? TELL ME!" He was surprised he could still possess such volume of voice given the state of his diaphragm. It must be shredded by now. The edge of Mugen pressed lightly on the skin of her neck, its sharp edge making a microscopic red line as it cut through skin. Vanya shook like a leaf, and her training finally set in as she answered, "I-I do not know. Please believe me when I say that I do not know." Kanda stared into her eyes, noting the panic and disarray. She was telling the truth.

He lowered his sword, the tip dragging on the ground, and Nthanda made grabby motions. Listlessly, Kanda tried to bend down to pick him up, but in doing so, he ended up losing his balance and falling over. Nthanda lost his balance as soon as Kanda did, and he cried as he crawled over the torn road to the man who'd become his caretaker. Almost mechanically, Kanda held him in his lap, staring down at the baby's head as Nthanda gripped his blood-soaked shirt. Kanda realized he was shivering, and everything felt strangely out of focus.

"Kanda...? Kanda, can you hear me? Kanda!" Vanya's voice faded in and out of Kanda's ears, and all he wanted in that moment was to go to sleep and stay asleep. He was so tired. Before he knew it, Ellis and Din were wavering in and out of his vision, black dots beginning to create negative spaces in his sight. He frowned as he realized that they were trying to carry him, but he couldn't feel a thing. Their lips moved, but he didn't know what they were trying to say to him. Their words were falling on deaf ears.

Finally, Kanda lost all consciousness as the trio carrying him and his charge left a blood trail behind them.

* * *

><p>His eyes flashed open, and he knew it was too soon for him to be awake. He felt absolutely no pain, and he was clean. There were sheets over him, and he was in some sort of old house. Intuition told him that this place... wasn't really <em>here, <em>per se. It was... intangible. Fictitious.

It was a nice place, though, as unreal as it was. Outside the window, he could see gentle rolling fields outlined by a dusky sky. It actually reminded him of some of the places he'd been in the South when he'd gone to America for a mission -

"I'd always wanted to go to America, y'know," a voice said, and Kanda turned to look towards its owner. The woman was dark skinned, so dark as to almost be completely black. Her eyes stood out, a beautiful orange-brown color directed toward the open fields. She was wearing a tattered dress with an apron, and her hair was bound back in a customary bun. She leaned against a wall with what seemed to be stars in her eyes. She brushed back a strand of hair, her proud jaw outlined by fading light.

The voice was familiar. She must be Nthanda's mother, but what was she doing here?

"I kinda stole a memory offa ya. About the South," she said sheepishly, shrugging. She had a thick accent, but it wasn't like Din's, with fluting tones and thrown in clicks here and there. Hers was definitely tinged with a more European edge. In this place, she looked so much calmer than how she sounded. Perhaps she'd mellowed out a bit. She was a pretty woman, all in all. Too bad she was dead.

"What are you doing here? What am _I _doing here?" Kanda asked, getting out of bed. He was wearing his Exorcist uniform, an odd thing to wake up in. He stood awkwardly, smoothing out ever-present wrinkles. He'd never done laundry, anyways, so it wasn't a surprise that even here his uniform was rumpled.

"You? Well, I wanted to wait until you were asleep, but that didn't happen. I decided to take the bull by the horns, y'know? Right now, you're up here," she said, tapping her temple. Kanda blinked. He was in his own head? How did that make sense? This was one bizarre dream.

"I just wanted to say thank you before I left," she said, looking at him. The two regarded each other, a twenty-something South African woman and an eighteen year old Japanese Exorcist. This was the first time he'd ever seen her, and he could see little resemblance between her and her baby. He processed her words.

...Leaving? What was this about leaving?

"I've stayed here too long, hon. I only got to stay cuz baby Nthandanaikanatae has that effect. He can keep the dead, for a little while, but I gotta go back. My work is done. And... I trust you," the woman said, turning away. Kanda noticed that she had valises next to her feet. He felt a settling dread overcome him. He'd noticed her increasing silence. Had she been attempting to distance herself from them both? What would he do without her constant nagging? What if he ever lost Ellis or Din? How was he going to take care of Nthanda without his mother guiding him?

"You'll do fine, I know you will. You've _been _doing fine. Trust yourself, honey, you don't give yourself enough credit," the woman said, chuckling. Suddenly, she looked pensive.

"Where are you going?" Kanda asked, and she shrugged.

"Dunno. Where _do _you go when you die? Ain't never been anyone come back before to tell us," she sighed. Kanda looked away. He remembered dying... but not being dead. It was a rather odd predicament.

"Well, I've stayed too long already. Gotta be headin' off. You's gonna wake soon, anyways," Nthanda's mother sighed, picking up the valises at her sides. They were covered with stamps, no doubt places she'd either been to in life or had wanted to go to while alive. The suit cases looked fairly new, as if they hadn't been used very often, and the stamps were few. Her world had been small.

Kanda watched her head towards the door, and he felt a sudden urge. He needed to know something.

"Wait!" Kanda called out, and, just as she was about to step outside through a door to the fields bathed in gold, she turned halfway to look at him. Her face was in profile as the last day's light seemed to produce a halo around her head. Her eyes were bright with an ethereal quality, and Kanda felt constricted, as if he were losing something important.

"I don't know your name," he said strongly. The woman's face flickered with an odd expression before turning to one of delight.

"Nobody ever ask me my name 'fore," she said quietly. Kanda felt apprehension as she seemed to consider this request. The light was dying, and she was beginning to fade. For quite a while he was afraid she'd never answer and soon she'd disappear. For whatever reason, he felt he should know who she was, if only so he could tell Nthanda when he was older. Kanda had never known a mother or father. It was hard to know that one could no longer remember the name of the people one first loves the most.

Finally, the woman tilted her head to the side, and her smile became deep. The fields were growing dark behind her, and twilight was falling. This was her last chance.

"Name's Alitash," she said, and she stepped foot outside. In that moment, the world brightened to the point of blindness, then was curtained in black to cover her passing from this world to the next, and Kanda once again fell prey to the deep nothing.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Here's the latest installment (obviously). Sorry it took me so long to write. I've been hounded with homework (and am actually shirking said homework to do this).

Big thanks to my reviewers, 3 akuma 3, EXO718, Liwhin, and FelineExorcist. Just a note, I'd prefer reviews to be in word form rather than emote form. It's a bit of a personal preference.

It also appears that I have new subscribers! -does a happy dance- I have a total of two, Yukirin Snow and Lotus seed (the name is awfully telling).

And now for the discussion questions to get you started. _What is the matter with the CROW? What happened while Kanda was asleep? Do you think its possible for him to even black out? Has he been kicked around too much throughout the story, or is this a rather realistic level of trouble? Is anything too over-the-top or unnecessary to the story? Who is your favorite character and why? Who is your least favorite character and why? What are things you'd like to see more of in the story? Have things gotten too sentimental?_

Anywho, that's it for me. God bless and happy reading!


	8. Family Ties

When one wakes the first sense to be realized out of all is that of sound. Touch lags behind, taste is slow to arouse, and smell drags its feet while sight lugs about, but sound is the foremost runner in the race to be known when one is removed from the mists of sleep. This being so, the first thing Kanda noticed upon returning to the world of the living (or mostly living, in his case) was the sound of clacking wheels. True to their nature, touch scrambled to follow. He was wearing nothing more than a pair of briefs and a mummy's worth of bandages around his waist and neck while completely covered by a thick, itchy wool blanket. His mouth felt thick and tasted of musty old things along with a hint of something else. He could smell metal and dust, the type of dust that arises from a thick dirt plain and clogs every opening and pore. Finally, he opened his eyes.

Just as he had deduced in those few seconds upon waking, he confirmed that he was on a train, and a rather rickety train at that. There were several large crates, and he sighed. Of all the places they could've put him, they had to stick him in the cargo hold of the stupid metal monster. He sat up, feeling awfully stiff, and he wondered just what exactly had happened to him. Most of Kanda's memory was fuzzy, though a lot of it was slowly filtering into his conscious mind. His joints creaked like rusted hinges as he tried to stand, finally giving up as the jolting train practically knocked him over time after time. It seemed that Kanda just had bad luck when it came to standing these past few hours or so. After his third attempt at remaining upright, the door to the car opened.

Kanda immediately grabbed for his sword, only to realize that not only was it missing but that he had no sword belt, or pants, or shirt, or... well, anything besides the briefs and bandages. Despite the imagery, he was anything but attractive - he was covered in sawdust, caked blood, and dirt. He probably looked like he'd crawled out of the insane asylum and into a trash can next to a carpentry.

Vanya stared at him rather incredulously before recovering. Nthanda, sleeping in her arms, suddenly stirred and immediately began to babble and lean towards the filthy swordsman. Vanya pulled him back, clucking at him in Russian.

"Nyet, nyet, nyet," she said, wagging a finger at him. Nthanda grabbed the finger in response and seemed to argue angrily in response, and Vanya cracked a very small, very fragile smile. She looked up at Kanda, and she said, "I see you hef risen. I vas coming to check if your fever hed come back." Kanda shifted on the floor, suddenly awkward at being so... unclothed around a person of the opposite gender. Usually, these sorts of social nuances bothered him little ; this was a new development, and all he could do was act like it was normal.

"How long was I unconscious?" Kanda asked gruffly, his voice scratchy from neglect. It even hurt to talk. He winced as his sides twinged as he shifted again, pulling the blanket over his legs. Where were his clothes? What sort of person just takes off your clothes and, worse, doesn't put them back on? Vanya sat down on a crate next to Kanda, sitting over him, and he felt vaguely uncomfortable with her being higher than he was. She bounced Nthanda on her leg, hardly having to work at it as the train bounced along the track.

"Nearly two days. Ve vere beginning to vorry you vould never vake up," Vanya said, glancing at Kanda. Her eyes were steely, completely shielded of all emotion or inflection. It was like staring into an empty doll. A gap in the armor appeared, though, as Nthanda yanked on a piece of her hair that had escaped its confines in her bobby pins, and she smiled again, that brittle grin.

"Glad to see you avake. Auntie Va-va can actually sleep. He has been an utter terror at night, crying and crying for you. I had to sleep there," she said, pointing past him to a spot between the crates nearly two feet away. Kanda didn't know how to feel about that either - that was the closest he'd slept to another person, much less a woman, for years. In fact, he couldn't remember what it was like. He typically got a completely separate room from his partners or Finders. It was unsettling to know all this had happened while he was knocked out cold.

"Let me guess - fractured ribs, lacerations, burns, the works," Kanda muttered, gesturing to the mass of bandages around his midsection. They almost reached his chest. Vanya cocked her head to the side as she looked down at the aforementioned strips of cloth, and she said, "Yes. You were bleeding so heavily, you ruined all my good clothes. I had to tear strips from canvas and poor Missus Leverrier's petticoats." It took Kanda's brain several seconds to match Ellis' last name with her first, and he nodded wearily. Vanya suddenly sat down next to him, setting Nthanda in his lap. Though the nine-month-old didn't seem particularly _happy _at this arrangement, the tyke wasn't unhappy either, playing with the loose strands of hair that hung over Kanda's shoulder.

Vanya immediately began to reach for the bandages at Kanda's midriff, and he instinctively put a hand out to stop her. She hesitated, looking up at him with a question in her gaze, and he hesitantly pulled back. She started to untuck and unwind the bandages, going round and round.

"You scared us, for a little vhile. Your heart stopped beating for all of five minutes, and ve began to panic a little. However, your vounds heve healed rather... nicely," she said, obviously skeptical as she looked at the source of injury.

Kanda himself was actually in disbelief as to how large a hole had been blown into him. He'd had many, many battlefield wounds, including, though obviously not limited to, having a foot long gash across his chest from shoulder to hip, electrical burns over most of his body, getting hit by a train (though that wasn't a battlefield wound, per se), and nearly having an arm lopped off. This just about took the top of the list, though, seeing as he was literally regenerating several different organs. The hole extended from the second rib from the bottom of his rib cage straight down to the hip. It was deep - in fact, it was deep enough that he could've easily hidden two or three golems inside of it. Luckily most of it was burned, so a good bit of the wound was cauterized, but there were several parts that were still glistening with blood, sinew, and freshly regenerated tissue. It was a wonder he hadn't died.

There was progress, though, from what he could see. A lot of it was new, reddish-pink flesh. It was actually rather disgusting to look at. Nthanda was suddenly interested in the large wound, and he reached out a hand to touch. Kanda gently redirected the hand away with a single, long finger, and Vanya shook her head as she pulled the baby back into her lap to keep him out of trouble. She began to apply a fresh bandage that she'd brought with her in Nthanda's diaper bag, though not before roughly cleaning out whatever debris had managed to seep in through the previous layer of bandage. Kanda hissed with pain, recoiling slightly at the sting of the water and cotton brushing against the raw wound. Vanya gripped his arm to keep him steady, single-mindedly tending the wound.

Kanda finally took the time to examine his traveling companion. She was haggard - a lot of her hair was disheveled. Her arm was still injured and covered with bandages along with the rest of her side, the deep layers mostly hidden by a black robe. Deep half-moons of bruised-looking flesh painted the underneath of her eyes, and her already pale skin looked paper-thin and nearly blue in the gold light drifting through the car. It appeared that she hadn't slept in days, and it made Kanda wonder how Ellis and Dingane were faring.

Those two! He'd completely forgotten about them. He hadn't even bothered to ask if they were injured or not - they'd been strong enough to direct people to lift him, after all, so they must be in sufficient shape, if not good condition. He felt slightly guilty for not thinking of them earlier, but he put the sentiment aside. His priority was to his charge and himself. Nobody else mattered. No matter what, the mission must be completed at all costs, even to the point of leaving someone behind.

Yet he'd saved the woman in front of him from perishing on a burning bridge over a ravine, and here she was, having saved his life. Perhaps there was some merit to this 'altruism' Allen was always trying to beat into him.

The swordsman lifted his arms slightly to accommodate the new bandages being wrapped around his middle. He had several other, smaller wounds and burns, but they were almost closed and healed. Several had been stitched, no doubt done while he was unconscious and with Ellis' sewing needles to boot. He tried not to think about that too much. Despite his affinity for accumulating massive amounts of damage, Kanda didn't like needles in the least. He held a special loathing for stitches. Allowing someone to tear small holes in his flesh just to close up a bigger hole seemed somewhat absurd to him, and he'd made that known several times in doctors' offices and medics' tents. Yes, it helped heal him faster, but he couldn't stand feeling the pull of thread through his skin.

"There. All done," Vanya said, tucking the end of the bandage in. She grabbed Nthanda's diaper bag, and the little boy took the opportunity to clamber out of her lap and into Kanda's. The aforementioned Exorcist was a little bit at a loss as to what to do with Nthanda now that his mother was gone, almost lost without any of her constant nagging and guidance. Ellis was as good a source as the ghostly mother, but mothers had that... that _way _about them when it came to their children.

He remembered when he was little that he'd feel that way towards his own mother. Technically, she hadn't been his 'mother' - she had been _his _mother, the other one. Still, he remembered the flashes of memory that had assailed him, bits and pieces of life before the other one's death, and it always made him wonder if those were his memories now. There'd been this assurance, this complete faith, in the one who'd borne the other one. It was this concrete, solid, unshakable feeling that no matter what she'd fix things so that everything was alright. Kanda had never truly felt that firsthand. Faith was not in his nature - despite his lack of education, or lack of intelligence as some believed, Kanda was an inquisitive, skeptical person who would not - no, could not - believe something he had never experienced for himself, even if it was a memory from a past life.

"Alright, next thing," she said, finished. He frowned as she suddenly leaned in closer, and internally he suddenly panicked. What was she -! His mind went in a million directions, opting for 'back up out of there as fast as possible.' He scuttled back quickly, managing to knock himself in the head on a crate stacked up behind him. He cursed loudly as Vanya jerked back, confused, and Nthanda suddenly stood up on... certain parts of Kanda's anatomy.

Three minutes later he was still rolled up in a ball on his side, wondering what sort of sick deity would create such a massive weak spot for even the strongest man. Vanya sighed as Kanda recovered from his ordeal. Nthanda had fallen over when Kanda had immediately curled up around his offended body parts, and he'd taken a bit of a knock to the hind end. Still, he was determined to stay stoic, crawling back over to Kanda and babbling to him as he patted the swordsman's face with fat, chubby hands.

Kanda suddenly felt hands working at the bandages at his neck, and Vanya said, "I know you are hurt, but you need a bath and we're stopping in an hour. You need a doctor." Kanda scoffed. Doctors were practically useless in his case. They always asked questions he didn't have answers for (in more ways than one), and they gawked whenever he walked out of their hospitals unannounced and perfectly fine. It was annoying. But, of course, everything was annoying, so that was no surprise.

Suddenly, things were getting a little too hot in the car. It felt stifling and dirty and unpleasant. Nthanda ceased pulling on Kanda's face to look up at Vanya, who was working on Kanda's neck. He reached up towards her, and Kanda watched the little tyke with a look of curiosity. He'd missed this little guy, even if he _had _just caused more undue pain in one instance than anyone had ever meted out to Kanda. The Exorcist poked Nthanda's stomach, and Nthanda let out a noise of ire. Kanda almost smiled, feeling the bandages suddenly come off completely. The wound was met with a splash of pain as air washed over it, and Kanda closed his eyes as Vanya's fingertips traced the raw edges. She sighed, an unknown emotion running through that single breath. Her touch was a feather over the skin, dry and fluttering. The stroking motions were almost soothing.

"Kanda... you have an infection here. In your neck. This is... is not good," Vanya stated, a strange note in her voice. Kanda opened his eyes. He couldn't see it, and perhaps that was a good thing. He began to get up, but Vanya's dry hand stayed him as she pressed against his shoulder.

"Lay here. I go to get Ellis. Perhaps she know what to do," the Russian said, her lilting accent hiding her thoughts. The warmth of her hand left behind a cool after-feeling as she got up and limped off, uneven steps shuddering Kanda's side through the train floor. Nthanda almost looked perplexed as he looked past Kanda's head. The Exorcist himself felt strange after that encounter, and he decided that it was best he just forgot about it. After all, that was what he did best when awkward things came his way - he pretended they'd never happened. He sat up and reached behind him, grabbing the diaper bag and pulling it towards him. Inside, Nthanda's drum peeked out, and he handed it to the still baby. Nthanda broke out of his trance, and he gripped the drum almost inquisitively, testing it with his fingers and gripping it as if he'd never seen the thing before. The moment passed, and he proceeded to pound on the thing with glee, though a smile didn't appear on his face. Who knew that a baby could be stoic?

Kanda thought about the ramifications of the wound in his neck. That Akuma had dug his fingers right into the side of it, narrowly missing the main artery. By all means he was lucky in that regard as well, but an infection was unheard of. He'd never had that problem, and his wounds should've healed up in the two days he'd been asleep.

Before he could think more on the subject the car door opened, and two pairs of footsteps trounced in. Kanda tried to turn his neck, but it was a pain attempting to twist around. All of a sudden, Ellis was pushing him down, and he protested loudly.

"Hey! I'm injured! Careful!" he grumbled as his cheek pressed against the metal floor. Vanya, at least, was gentle about it!

"Oh, shush your mouth. Now let Auntie Ellis take a - oh my. This _is_ rather serious, isn't it? Thank you for telling me, Vanya, just more to worry over," Ellis said, blustering around at fifty miles per hour. Vanya stood off, giving an air of bemusement despite her blank expression while Kanda sat up again. Nthanda ignored the proceedings, playing with his drum. The train suddenly gave a sharp jolt, and Ellis fell over on her rump with a swift 'oof!' Kanda took that opportunity to sit up and get out from under Ellis' domineering ministrations.

"Give me my clothes," he demanded, tired of being fussed over. He was getting awfully irritable, and he wanted to be clothed and clean. This was just insulting. He was a big boy - he could take care of himself. He didn't need them swarming him like he was some invalid in a hospice. Ellis ruffled as she huffed, "Well, alright, Mr. Knickers-In-A-Twist. I'll go and get your clothes. Don't mind the fact I haven't been asleep for more than a few hours at a time trying to take care of you. Hmph!" She left with that, slamming the door on her way out, and Kanda winced as the noise bit into his ear drum. He was beginning to foster a headache along with his other assorted aches and pains.

"Be kind, Kanda. She has been worried. We all have," Vanya said, walking over to Nthanda. She sat down stiffly with the boy, playing his drum in time with him, and Kanda felt a pang of jealousy, surprising as it was sharp. He quashed the feeling quickly, rooting it out like a weed from a garden. Attachment, feh -

Then there was that moment again. Everything _shifted. _It was like the world had suddenly moved off-kilter, where everything was the same yet in a completely different light. It was as if someone had replaced the lenses of his mind's eye with something rosy and bright, almost blinding. He felt this massive, vast _feeling _out of nowhere, this absolute conviction in... in _something, _and in the back of his mind it scared him. This was the feeling that had left that hole before, only now the feeling was just... bigger. Fuller. A certain knowing assailed his mind, one tinged with nostalgia as he looked at Nthanda and Vanya.

Like the last time, Vanya was no longer herself, but _that _woman. The baby, though... the baby was familiar, too. He was another person as well. It was an overlay of a memory, one on top of the other. He was split between two people and times, and he clung to that vast feeling, scared of the hole it would leave behind when it went away.

And, in a fit of thought, he realized who he was seeing. The two before him were his family. He'd had a _family. _A... family?

In that moment, the world shattered. The image fell apart like so many shards, and the hole yawned within him. Yet, within the hole, there was a spark. It was a small spark, but it was alive and there. Kanda wasn't sure which scared him more - the fact the spark existed or that it he could easily snuff it out if he so wished.

"Kanda? Is there something the matter?" Vanya asked, snapping him out of his thoughts. Kanda, lost for words, stood up and walked out of the car, unwilling to acknowledge that at one time he may have been a father and that he may have actually once felt love.

* * *

><p>"We be dere in t'ree days. Jus' saw Clinger's Rock, so's we near deh rivers. We need be real careful round dem rivers, cuz 'at's deh borduh. Lots a' cutthrohts 'n purse stealers 'n milit'ry. No' a fun plehce t'be for too lohng," Din said, cleaning out his phone pack. He'd been trying to get a signal for the entire two days that Kanda had been unconscious, from what the samurai had heard from Ellis. The black Finder had been tirelessly staunch in keeping his optimism high and his rifle in working order. So far they hadn't hit any problems besides a hobo who'd thought that this was <em>his <em>train rather than a free vehicle to the populace (well, the poor populace).

Kanda nodded, helping Nthanda stand by putting out two fingers for him to hang on to as the tyke attempted to walk on his own. So far, the baby had only succeeded in falling over every few minutes, but he was steadily standing for longer and longer periods of time. His belly was full and dark, and his diaper was a new blue hanky that Kanda had found in Nthanda's bag, packed by none other than Ellis herself. Kanda had also donned a new set of clothes, his first set having been ripped to pieces in his earlier battle. His clothing cost alone was high, and he was lucky the Order bought him new outfits or else he'd be walking around stark naked.

Kanda looked over at Dingane with a touch of curiosity as Nthanda wobbled along. The Finder was an unassuming man by all accounts with a layer of outright cheer that was neither chafing nor boisterous. To be quite honest, it was refreshing to have someone around that was always smiling yet never obtrusively happy. Allen's sort of brightness was like a spotlight in comparison, practically blinding and all around annoying. Despite all this, Kanda had never once wondered about the Finder and his thoughts or his past. All he knew was that the man had joined the Order in order to pay for his sister's medical bills... or was that his mother? Kanda suddenly realized he had two different versions of the same story, and his curiosity spiked.

"Din, why _did _you join the Order? It sure wasn't for the fringe benefits," Kanda said, snarking the last bit. Din looked up, surprised that Kanda was even talking. He looked out the side of the train car, which was pulled back and open. Green hills and lush forest flashed past the train as it trundled along the track.

"My sistuh. I tol' ye once, right?" Din said, reluctant. His hesitance was like the smell of meat to a dog, leading Kanda on towards that morsel of information he knew he was missing.

"I remember hearing it was your mother," Kanda said, leaning back against another crate. Nthanda gurgled angrily as he took another frustratingly shaky step forward. His foot slid sideways, and Kanda was swift to catch him. Din looked down into his phone case, suddenly very intent on fixing it. After several moments of silence, Din quietly said, "Well... me sistuh _is _me mothuh. Grandpappy is me Da. T'ings... got very, very complicated." He said the last word with a deliberateness that only added to the implications. Kanda was shocked for a moment, tracing the twisted family tree in his mind. That must've meant that his sister had been... Oh.

"Is hard to 'splain in Sout' Africa. I don' like t' talk 'bout it," Din said, suddenly terse and pensive as he began to redo the wiring in his phone box. Kanda kept his eyes on Nthanda who was intent on making his first steps, albeit with help. After several minutes, Din suddenly asked, " 'n you, Boss? You got family?" Nthanda gurgled at Din, waving a hand at him as if swatting at the man. Kanda could almost imagine the kid going 'shut up! Can't you see he's helping me?' The samurai sincerely hoped the kid didn't turn into a screaming brat when he grew up. He was already powerful as it was.

"No. No family. I don't even know where I really come from," Kanda said, pulling up one of the fingers Nthanda was holding on to. The baby suddenly tilted, but he hung on tenaciously, and Kanda almost smiled. At least the tyke was a fighter.

"Ah. You orphan?" Din asked congenially. Kanda thought about it for a minute. Could he be considered an orphan? He had no parents - no true parents, anyhow. If anything, he was his own parent; his past body and mind had been completely different from who he was now, and there was hardly any connection besides the brain they now shared. His original set were long dead - he'd been in that tank for some ninety years.

"Something like that," Kanda answered vaguely. Din glanced over, eyes curious. Deciding to throw the dog a bone for once, Kanda said, "I was raised in the Order. You could say I was born there, but I didn't have parents." The black man shrugged his shoulders. His imagination could do all the rest. Ellis blustered in all of a sudden, carrying an armful of new bandages with a peeved look.

"You're lucky I like you so much. I've had to get rid of _three _good petticoats _just _for your bandages. A_ha!_" She suddenly dropped all of them next to Kanda on top of a rather large blanket, and Kanda wondered if Ellis had somehow managed to nab some sort of hyperspace device to put all of her clothes, blankets, and other such things. He'd seen her pack all of two suitcases, and that was it. Where was all of this stuff coming from?

Ellis surveyed her three companions with a look of satisfaction, as if she'd accomplished something of great might. She was most definitely haggard looking - her bun was sloppy (heaven forbid!), and her clothes were wrinkled. Her eyes were bright, though, despite the added lines and dark circles. She was dirty, as dirty as the rest of them, but for some reason her demeanor gave the feeling that she was cleaner than the rest of her traveling companions. She stood next to Kanda, bending over his shoulder to see Nthanda, who was still attempting to walk.

"I see you two are getting along famously again. The both of you were sick as dogs the day we left, and I just about thought I'd die of exhaustion watching the two of you twitch and quiver. Mwa~." Kanda was immediately shocked as Ellis gave him an affectionate peck to the head, and he turned to look at her with incredulity. Even Din and Nthanda were struck dumb and paralyzed. The woman straightened up, dusting herself off rather primly before noticing that Din and Kanda were gawking as if she'd suddenly sprouted a horrific rash.

"What? You've never seen a woman before? I understand I'm a little over-buxom, but still," she said, tottering off to go and sit down next to the open door of the train to air out. Wisps of brown and gray hair danced around her lined face as she relaxed in the breeze caused by the train's passing, and Kanda scrubbed at his head where Ellis had planted her peck. The last time he'd been kissed, _Jiji _of all people had done it, and he'd been drunk to boot so it wasn't just alcoholic, it was _sloppy. _The very memory brought shivers across Kanda's skin, and his countenance turned dark as he remembered.

For the rest of the day, and for most of the night, they took turns keeping watch and going to sleep. They passed the time talking, Kanda tending to stay out of the conversations. Just from listening he learned quite a bit. Vanya, before she'd been orphaned, had been the child of a toymaker who'd been killed in a revolution in Russia. Ellis' family, the Leverriers, were good pastry makers, and she'd caught the gene as well, making exquisite cakes and pastries. At one point, she'd even made a special cake...

"Oh, it was delightfully devilish. That woman had it coming to her. Kick _my _dog, will you? Well, I'm sure she was _very _surprised when she found out what _exactly _was in that cake. I hear that cockroaches are _marvelous _ with vanilla icing, wouldn't you say, Dingane?"

"Hey, hey, mum, doncha knock deh roaches 'til ya try some o' me auntie's fried'ns, and _then _you can complain." This brought about a raucous roar of laughter, and Kanda 'tch'ed in response with a smirk.

"Oh, does Mr. I'm-A-Silent-Git-And-I-Feel-Anti-Social have something to say?" Ellis quipped, and Din laughed with a bit of a wheeze, showing bright white teeth. Vanya lifted her eyebrows at Kanda, almost inviting him into the conversation. Nthanda sat in his lap, happily beating his drum with his pudgy hands, Kanda directing them with his own spindly fingers.

"I've got an even better one. You know what horseradish is?" Kanda said, smirk turning dangerously close to a smile. Ellis and Din seemed to lean forward in anticipation as they both nodded. Vanya rolled her eyes discreetly at their childlike enthusiasm.

"I've got a friend who's a complete idiot. He could tell you how to get to the moon, but if you stuck him in a forest by himself, he'd probably go crazy. That's just the type of guy he is, a stupid redhead," Kanda said, leaning back against a crate. He waited a few moments, milking the quiet for all it was worth as the three visibly tried to hold in their questions. Dare he say it, he was enjoying himself. He had them on a string.

"He doesn't look before he eats. He just eats. Anyhow, he dumped paint all over me one afternoon as a prank... so I got him back," Kanda said, shrugging nonchalantly. By now, the three were buzzing in their seats, waiting. Kanda leaned an elbow on his knee, resting his chin in his palm as he drummed Nthanda's drum with his fingers, Nthanda frantically trying to catch the man's spider-like digits as they passed over the tight drumskin. He kept his face carefully composed in a mask of carelessness and almost-boredom.

"I helped Jerry, the cook, in the kitchen one day, and the idiot redhead ordered dumplings... so I filled them all with wasabi horseradish sauce," Kanda said, finally giving a telling smirk. For several moments it was quiet, and then suddenly they started to laugh. It came slowly, like an onrush of water, and at last came as a massive wave of mirth.

"W-wha'd ya frien' do, M-mistuh Kanda?" Din asked through bursts of laughter. Kanda's smirk cracked wider as he said, "His face practically exploded. He fell on the floor and started crawling on the ground." The others laughed, and, to their surprise, Nthanda joined in. They all looked at Nthanda with wonder as the baby giggled, slapping his drum with renewed vigor. The four looked at each other with new eyes before resuming their chatter.

It went on like that for two more days. It would've been nice to say that their trip went on like this until their next stop. Unfortunately, it seems like Exorcists, Finders, and the like were not the type to attract such good fortune.

"Kanda... Kanda, wake up!" The samurai was standing and in a stance with Mugen in his hands within seconds as he heard someone say his name. On the floor where he'd lain down, Nthanda breathed peacefully. Kanda searched for the voice that had startled him awake. Vanya suddenly seemed to melt into the moonlight, dark hair hanging down in snarls from the braids she'd painstakingly tried to keep in order.

"We're getting closer to the border, and Din says ... Kanda, are you alright?" she asked, her empty voice suddenly spiked with concern. Kanda frowned, wondering what could be so bad as to cause concern when he noticed that the bandage around his neck was soaked and he was swaying back and forth as he stood. Vanya walked across the room, and she placed a cool, dry hand across his face and neck, frowning listlessly.

"You're very, very warm. Let me see your bandage," Vanya whispered fervently, tearing roughly at the bandage, her steady yet relentless motion showing her anxiety though her face was a mask. Kanda winced as some of the still-healing flesh was ripped away with the bandage, and he grabbed her hand instinctively, causing her to gasp as he began to crush her wrist in his grip. She let go of the bandage as he said, "I can do it myself." He reached up with his sword, sliding the blade through and cutting it off. The pieces fell around his neck and clung to the skin. Already, he could tell from the rancid stink that the wound was steadily getting worse.

"We need to get you to a doctor - wait... we're slowing down," Vanya said, noticing the sound of slowing wheels. Immediately, Kanda scooped up Nthanda and hid behind some crates. The child cried for all of a minute before Kanda put a finger to the babe's lips, signalling quiet. Nthanda had learned quickly over the past few days that this meant silence, and he fell mute. Vanya followed suit, crawling into an already opened crate and pulling the lid over her head. Kanda was too big to hide inside of a crate, and he didn't want to slip Nthanda in one alone, either. He vacillated the decision for a few more minutes before the train stopped completely. The car opened, and Kanda tensed with his sword at the ready. Humans were no match for the bite of his blade. Akuma were little more than machines to be cut down. He would be perfectly fine.

Ellis suddenly popped into a frame of moonlight, scaring the ever-lasting daylight out of him.

"Sorry, sorry - look, we need to get off the train and... oh dear, this is... this is horrible, how did this -" Kanda waved a hand to stop her from saying any more.

"Just tell me what we're doing," Kanda said tersely, grumpy from being woken up. Din slid into view as well, his rifle in his hand. Ellis looked scared and nervous, twisting a handkerchief between her fingers.

"Hiding. We're hiding. We saw militia - lots and lots of militia, all trying to hold the border. They're looking for political enemies, of which we are now one, from what the radio broadcasts have been saying," Ellis stated breathlessly. Her usually cocky and stuffy countenance was replaced with one of twitchy seriousness. She knew better than most the dangers that could befall a person out in war-torn South Africa. The train came to a full stop, and voices rang out from the ducts above. Men were negotiating with the train conductor. A single shot was heard, singing in the night air like a hawk's cry - apparently, that was the end of the negotiation.

"Forget it - I'll just carve a path out, and we'll leave," Kanda said, about to get up, but Ellis pulled him back down in his seat.

"Think about this, Kanda. How many men do you know are out there? How many can you take in your condition? Let me talk to them," Ellis whispered. Vanya suddenly poked her head out of her crate and said, "We can escape. Go out the back or the top." They fell silent, taking the option into consideration -

Suddenly, footsteps echoed through the open door of the car, and they scattered into different hiding places. Din set up his gun at the end of the car while Kanda headed towards the door with Nthanda in the crook of his arm. The baby had already fallen back to sleep, resilient to the last for that final wink. Vanya was still in her carton, probably pulling out what knives she had left. Ellis took up residence at the side of the train.

Two men stepped into the car, walking right past Kanda. They were talking to each other, some of which Din understood. Strangely enough, they were talking about their daughters... and then, suddenly, Kanda seemed to slink out of the darkness and slit both their throats in a single, quick stroke from behind. It was jarring, like watching two men on the street ruthlessly murdered in a moment. Kanda didn't seem to notice, wiping his sword on his dirty pants, pus dripping out of his wound and onto his shirt from the infected holes in his neck. He disappeared through the door, and Din tried to make sense of what he'd just seen as all three waited in anticipation.

The sound of something dropping the floor met their ears four more times before Kanda came back, stripes of blood on his pants from wiping Mugen against the fabric. There was a pained look on his face as he sheathed Mugen and looked down at the bodies. The men were armed with rifles, and Kanda took one for himself. Having a firearm was always helpful in cases where Akuma were not concerned. He motioned for the three to come out, Vanya leaving only after Din whispered the all-clear. As Din passed by, he noticed that the men on the ground were still breathing, though barely.

Somehow, Kanda had managed to slit their throats and still leave them living. They were bleeding out heavily, but given that the men were noticed in time, they could be saved. Din passed them by with an odd look, following Kanda into the second car. Likewise, the four men who'd been inspecting that car were also either knocked unconscious or slit the same way.

"There's a forest through that way. We'll use the trees as cover. They won't find us in the dark," Kanda said, panting slightly while the women gathered their things. In the moonlight, he was extremely pale. It was obvious he'd worsened significantly in the past few hours. They stolidly ignored this fact as Ellis hopped out with Nthanda in hand, Kanda coming afterwards, Din following, and then -

The train began to move forwards with a lurch, and Vanya faltered as she was startled into confusion. The other three watched in horror as she hopped out late, smashing into a tree. Her forehead made a sickening _crunch _against the trunk, and Din ran for her as men shouted. Vanya stood up drunkenly, trying to regain her bearings through pain as Kanda and Ellis ran through the forest away from the voices and lantern-lights. Din led her away, attempting to follow the other pair of travelers by listening for their footsteps. Before long, gunshots rang out in the night as the two stumbled after the four, catching up at last.

Kanda and Vanya fell in step with each other as Din helped Ellis along. Ellis passed Nthanda to the swordsman, hoping that the faster, lighter man would have a better chance of running off with the babe should the worst happen. The shots were getting closer, and one of them even brushed close enough to put a piece of buckshot into one of Ellis' valises. Suddenly, they came upon a steep incline along the edge of a high creek, and all four of them fell in the dark, rolling down the hill. Suddenly, they were separated, Ellis rolling the farthest away, and Din headed straight for the water. Vanya hit yet another tree sideways, knocking the breath out of her lungs. Kanda barely managed to protect Nthanda, the baby finally waking up with a slight whimper as Kanda stopped in a pile of pine needles and dirt.

Above, he could hear the sounds of people, gunshots continuing. He couldn't make out where his other compatriots were, and a headache was beginning to cloud over him, his face flushing with fever. His infection was really setting in. His body had fought it off as well as it could, but with how hard he'd been pushed for the past few days it was failing on him. He panted, sliding down the incline until his feet hit the water, and he began to follow it down. He found a large gathering of slab-like rocks, and he wedged himself in between two of them, barely able to keep his and the baby's head above the water. The creek flowed against his clothes and threatened to take him away. Thankfully it was cool - he felt as if his body were alternating between a burning furnace and an icy pit. His eyes suddenly began to close as his hands gripped Nthanda, drifting into a fever dream.

* * *

><p>"Al...ma...?" Kanda frowned pensively, feeling out of sorts and distant. The world around him seemed to vibrate with an annoying vivaciousness. Trees circled overhead like hawks, the world swimming in light, greenness, and glare. Overhead, he could see somebody, but the face was out of focus, like someone had distorted his vision. The trees seemed to switch between pillars of concrete and friezes back to woody trunks. His body felt cold, almost like he was in water again when he'd first come out of that pool. He reached up a hand to touch the face, hoping to get a better idea of who was standing over him. His fingers met skin, but he could glean no information.<p>

"What... are... are you... do...ing...?"

Something was placed over his skin, cool to the touch, but so vague in its sense that he hardly noticed its presence. His mind scattered at every thought, a school of bright silver fish fleeing before a shark of sensation. A voice was in his ear, but, like the face, he couldn't make it out. First, a fluting alto, the next a whispering tenor at his side, reminding him of people he didn't know or care to know. Things danced in his vision, things he didn't understand. After a while, those visions left him and the face came back to take their place.

The face dripped into focus, the features melding together and then splitting apart. A scar over the nose at first, but then a smooth, small freckled nose. Eyes of brightest brown, and then old blood. Dark hair, always the same yet of different style, kept flipping back and forth in the light breeze, and something was lifted off of him. A great weight suddenly disappeared from his chest, and the figure stood up with something in its arms. Feeling abject panic, Kanda tried to get up, roaring at the figure as he reached for the precious thing that had been taken. That thing, the thing he didn't know he had, was important. He wasn't sure how, but it was and he would go through hell and back to keep it.

Hands gripped him and held him down, a massive weight on his stomach as he struggled against a black figure that smelled like blood and death. Fear sank its teeth into his mind, and he flailed as he felt the smothering touch. He screamed incomprehensible things, flinging himself against that death-being which had taken whatever precious thing he'd had. His body bucked and twisted underneath the smell of decay and flesh, a monstrous visage swimming in his vision. He reached for his sword, knowing that if he had that he could cut anything in the world, even Death himself. Nothing could touch him. No one would have to die any more. No, no one would have to die... if he could just... kill Death -

"Kanda... Kanda, quiet... quiet, please, be quiet..." a voice pleaded in his ear, struggling. It managed to break through the haze, beating off the panic with a massive stick of gentle calm. His breathing slowed as something stroked the side of his face, dry skin meeting wet skin. He stopped flailing, focusing on the voice that was becoming an anchor in his dizzy world.

"Quiet... good, quiet... just quiet..." The world tilted over him again, the trees landing like so many pigeons, and the sky turning over as a blanket flipping over does. Exhausted, he lay his head back, letting the earth roll over and bury him.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** Another chapter done! And two new reviews, too - quite nice reviews, too, might I add by none other than Lotus seed and EXO718. Big thanks for those - I love getting such positive reviews. They're very heart-lifting, and they inspire me to write.

Ah, for the favorites, I'd like to thank Breebree811. For my subscribers, I'd like to thank Tomoyo-chan284 and KeidaHattori. It's odd that all my stories are so heavy-handed one way or the other on the subscribe or favorite side. I wonder what that could mean? Anyone have any guesses?

And, of course, I still have one more person to thank - it is God's birthday (well, second birthday). I want to thank God for giving me what talent that I _do _have.

Discussion questions! _What do you make of Kanda's (probable) past life? Is it possible that he could have actually had a family? Has the story progressed in ways you expected? Try placing your favorite characters in order. Should more characters be added? Has Nthanda developed as a baby significantly? Do you enjoy reading this story? Do you have a favorite character so far? How about least favorite character? Why? Should there be more animal interactions? How sick are you guys of trains? _

That's what I have for today. I'll see you all next time!

God bless you, and happy Easter.


	9. Infected

Kanda stared at the ceiling, realizing he was awake very slowly. He took a deep breath as he gathered his thoughts, wondering idly whether he was alive or dead. He'd been in and out of consciousness for a long time, though for how long he wasn't sure. He could hear someone speaking softly in a language he didn't understand, and he squeezed his eyes shut as a wave of pain washed over his head. He felt like a gnome was tap-dancing on the inside of his skull. He turned his head towards the voice, taking in surroundings as he did. He was painfully aware of just how vulnerable he was right now, prostrate and injured.

He was on a bed in a room that was, at most, only ten by ten feet. There was a chair, a nightstand, and plenty of suitcases littering the ground. The walls were wood paneled, there was a single window with a minuscule balcony, and the floor was covered by a very threadbare carpet. His sword was laying against a wall, propped up by Din's phone pack. Listlessly, he dragged his eyes over to the chair next to the bed where Vanya was sitting, holding Nthanda as he fell asleep against her chest. She was speaking in a tone he'd never heard her use before, a deliberate and slow diction that held tiny notes of inflection and differentiation. Even though he had no idea what she was saying, he could understand that she was telling a story to the babe as he drifted off. Now knowing he was in no immediate danger and that his weapon was secure, Kanda let his body relax. Indeed, he hadn't even realized that he'd tensed to begin with.

When Vanya had finished, Kanda croaked, "Great. Now translate to English." Vanya looked up, her empty face giving the impression of surprise without the actual expression. She put away the brittle smile she'd had on, and she looked away from him.

"Aunt Va-va should sleep instead. It is late," she said. What she told him was true - the world outside was fading into dusk, and it would soon be time for her to light a lantern. Kanda felt vaguely disoriented as he sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes as his brain tried to push its way out of his skull sockets. He blinked several times as his eyes adjusted to the dark room, and Vanya went to light a candle, laying Nthanda down in the padded chair she'd formerly occupied. He was sound asleep now, the circle on his chest hidden by a small nightie he now wore. Kanda looked the baby over, mostly from habit, and was relieved to see that he was in, more or less, good shape.

Now, he looked to Vanya, who was lit by the glow of the candle. As was his wont, he looked her over, too, but for very different reasons. While he may look on Nthanda to be sure the child was fine, he looked at Vanya as he would an adversary, cataloging wounds and weaknesses almost by intuition. A gash stood out against her forehead where she'd slammed into that tree. There was some bruising around on part of her eye from some other encounter. Her arm was most definitely not healed yet, as it was bandaged heavily. Her side was also padded to within an inch of her life, and her leg was banged up. It would be a long while before the CROW would be in top fighting condition. For some reason, that gave Kanda a bit of satisfaction as well as worry. He couldn't deny she'd been a help, but he also couldn't deny that any strike against a CROW was good in his book.

Suddenly, his gaze turned from noticing her weaknesses to viewing her wholly. Hair was a mess, face was drawn, eyes were tired, hands shook. She was in worse shape than he was.

"Where are we?" Kanda asked, running a hand through his hair. He made a face as he realized that his hair was in a state of terrible disrepair. Sand, mud, all sorts of gunk were stuck in the strands, and he immediately felt disgusting. Kanda was actually a very prim man, and he didn't like things to be out of order. He could take his clothes being rumpled, going without a bath for a few days, and having his suitcase a little bit disorganized, but his hair was so long that if he left it for too long, it would tangle and immediately become a hassle.

"We are past the South African border, right into the English Protectorate. We're staying in a settlement called Lobatse," she answered, binding her hair back restlessly. There was another pause as Kanda thought about where that put us on their journey.

"What was that story about? The one you were telling Nthanda?" Kanda asked out of curiosity. Rarely did something pique his interest, but this had struck a chord. Not only that, but he had nothing better to do. While waiting for an answer, he categorized all his aches and pains, noting that his neck was killing him and his side was still in sorry condition, though significantly better than it had been before. Vanya contemplated his question with a hesitant stare before she walked back to her chair and picked up Nthanda gently. She cradled him while picking up a series of jars and cork board and setting them all on the nightstand. Kanda stared at the bugs within the jars, slightly unsettled that they were mostly still besides the twitch of a leg or an antennae.

"I was telling him a story of Baba Yaga," Vanya said calmly, picking up a pin from the cork board and choosing a small glass jar with its tiny, arthropod prisoner. Slowly, carefully she extracted the contents, a beetle of some sort, and placed it against the cork board. This one must be a new one - it didn't have any other pinned insects. Kanda watched, vaguely interested and disgusted. Why anyone would want to keep dead bugs was beyond him.

"Baba Yaga?" he asked. With a swift jab, Vanya speared straight through the beetle, expertly doing it fast enough to keep from cracking its outer shell. It splayed its legs in its death throes, squirming momentarily before suddenly lapsing into stillness. Vanya looked up at Kanda, and he knew that she was taking in his reaction. He showed no outward feeling, having played this game for longer than he'd like to say. She looked down again, shifting Nthanda in the crook of her arm as she readied another pin for its next victim.

"Yes. Baba Yaga. A folk tale, from Russia. She is an old woman, old as the mountains, old enough to remember when the sun was born. She is wise but finicky, and she would soon as help you as eat you. She flies around on this old mortar while using the pestle to steer and swinging a silver birch broom behind her to sweep away her tracks. I remember my father telling me stories about her, that she was not always good, not always bad. Just as most people are not good, not bad, just... them," she said quietly. She stabbed through another insect, this one a bright, iridescent moth. It didn't not so much as squirm, probably having already died. Quietly, she examined her handiwork, and she said, "Why do you ask of the story?" In response, Kanda shrugged.

"What else can I do?" Kanda asked. He stared at the far wall, wondering where his other two traveling companions could be. Crossing his legs, he took a deep breath and attempted to clear his mind. He felt sick to his stomach and terribly ill, and he felt like he couldn't think straight.

"Where are Din and Ellis?" he finally asked. She'd moved on to the next three insects, and her jars were running out. Pretty soon she'd have to go out and find more bugs. What were special about these things, anyways? She acted as if she were doing some sort of duty rather than a hobby. He found it strangely unsettling. In a way, he could actually empathize with those bugs, and maybe that's what made him feel so uneasy watching her pin them to the board.

"Out. They should be back soon," Vanya responded tersely. She brushed back her hair, and the seal scar she had on her neck winked in the dying light. Kanda swung his legs over the edge of the bed, unsteadily standing up. He tottered towards what he thought was the bathroom, and he took an extra candle before going in. After he'd done what he needed to, which was unload probably three days worth of waste, he stared into the mirror. The candle threw light against him in an eerie manner, highlighting the hollows in his face so he resembled a death's head, and he inspected the gash in his neck.

It had been covered with another layer of dressing and bandages. Slowly, he unwound them, wincing at the soreness in his back and shoulders. Just about all of him felt sore, and he tried to remember what had happened to him. He knew that he'd fallen off the train, rolled down an embankment, and landed in a river. After that, things got very... fuzzy. He also remembered some sort of death being trying to smother him, but he was going to attribute that to a fever. Was that what had happened to him? He'd gotten sick? Of course, that sounded preposterous. He didn't _get _sick. If anything, he beat sick's sorry hide until it ran away for its mother with its tail between its legs.

Never the less, he could feel the aftereffects of fever. He himself had never had a fever before (and indeed, he absolutely loathed that new experience), but he'd seen Lavi once suffer from a terrifically heinous bout of malaria in Cambodia. At first, Kanda had had no idea what to do seeing as the two of them had been alone, and Lavi had steadily gotten worse through their trek. Kanda sniffed derisively to himself as he remember the idiot redhead babbled about the different women in his life at the time - none of whom Kanda knew or cared to know. He had to sit there for nearly five hours wondering when the guy would shut up, only to panic when he _did _shut up and almost stop breathing.

Suddenly, the gash came into view, and Kanda was immediately stunned. The wound still hadn't healed, but it was no longer full of pus or bleeding. If anything, it had mostly started to grow back over, but it seemed that there was a blockage of some sort that was preventing the gash from closing up completely. Kanda knew that, despite his fast healing rate, he would end up with a rather nasty scar. He hated scars. They were uncomfortable and ugly. Most people didn't realize this, but Kanda was rather vain about his appearance, perhaps even more so than Lavi or Allen. It was not in his best interest to be marred. At the least, he hoped it faded to a silver scar rather than a puckered, nasty purple line.

There was a knock on the door, and Vanya asked, "Kanda? Are you alright?" Kanda rolled his eyes, shifting from foot to foot restlessly. He threw open the door with a glare, and Vanya stood there, shocked. They were a mere two inches from each other, nearly nose to nose, and he said, "Do you mind? I'm busy." Vanya's eyes turned steely, and she crossed her arms over her chest indignantly.

"I need to look at your wound. If I don't clean it out, it will get infected again, and _that _is a disgusting, messy situation I am not willing to be in again," she retorted, her thick accent rolling her words into strange sounds. Kanda gave his usual answer, a 'tch', but he was surprised to find himself being led to the bed. Automatically becoming awkward and unwilling, he resisted by digging his heels in the floor. Vanya stared at him as if he were some sort of idiot, and she said, "Well? Come here, I do not bite. I promise not to pin you to the bed." For a moment, Kanda was taken aback by the statement before realizing she meant a literal pin when she picked up one of the instruments she used to stick bugs to her cork board and showed it to him by twisting it between her fingers. Disoriented by her sudden bout of actual emotion, he reluctantly allowed himself to be poked and prodded into the correct position, almost nose to wall next to the window.

Light filtered through from the moon shining overhead. He hadn't realized just how long he'd been in the bathroom, inspecting that wound. Vanya's touch was light and feathery, as always, and he found himself uncomfortably soothed by the sensation. He had never been fond of people touching him - it was one of the reason he hated doctors so much. Nthanda was becoming an obvious exception considering Kanda's new role as caregiver, and Lenalee was practically family to him. Speaking of the young tyke, Nthanda woke up as Vanya was inspecting the wound, and Vanya quickly deposited him in the curve of Kanda's body between the window, wall, and him. The baby sleepily crawled over to Kanda, and he immediately grabbed a strand of hair.

"Don't do that," Kanda almost pleaded, but Nthanda ignored the statement and wrapped his fingers in it. The stoic infant stuck his other hand in his mouth, staring at Kanda pensively as Vanya continued her check-up.

"We arrived here yesterday. I had to carry you the entire way, and I was not very happy. One day, I am hoping that you have to do that for someone else. God's justice, no?" Vanya said, being uncharacteristically chatty. Pinning poor insects to a board had made her rather cheery, it seemed. Kanda didn't answer back, merely tugging on Nthanda's foot as the baby began to crawl down the bed towards his feet.

"We managed to get a transport on a truck from a farmer down to the south. I did not think we would make it with you still alive. You almost attacked me at one point, when we were resting. Gave me this, ja?" she said, leaning over him to look him in the face. He looked up, eyeing the yellowing bruise around her brow. Wait... he'd done that? He could vaguely remember something of that nature, but it was all a big, fat blur. Before he could get a good look, Vanya retreated again, picking things out of the neck wound, swabbing it to keep it clean. Kanda could do it himself, but he probably wouldn't have done a very good, thorough job of it.

Vanya suddenly slipped, one of the arms holding her up folding under her as it was unable to take her weight. She used Kanda as a prop, and he looked at her strangely as he noticed that her face had gone completely pale. He sat up slowly, taking her weight by the elbow as he did, and she took several deep breaths. He noticed that she was abnormally warm, and he wondered if perhaps he'd been sick with something more than just infection and he'd passed it on to her. Good God, what if he passed it on to Nthanda as well? He looked behind him at the child, but he seemed just fine, standing up with his pudgy hands gripping the windowsill.

"Vanya, are you sick?" Kanda asked bluntly. She shook under his grip, hair shielding her face. Quietly she whispered, "I'm fine. Let me go. I just need to sit." She attempted to stand, but Kanda yanked her back into a sitting position.

"Don't be a martyr. Tell me: are you sick?" he asked. He wondered if she'd tried hiding it from Din and Ellis as well? She held herself, and she didn't answer for a long time. Finally, she said, "Yes. I am sick. I... have an infection. Like you." That would explain why Nthanda was in such good condition, then. He _hadn't _passed anything on to the babe - he'd given it to Vanya. Kanda growled irritably. He _hated _martyrs. They always thought they were going to be saints or something foolish like that. He pushed her shoulder and said, "Lie down, then. I'll get you water, and you just lay there. If you move, I'll cut off your arm."

Bedside manner was not Kanda's forte.

As he went for water from the bathroom, he idly wondered where Din and Ellis could be...

* * *

><p>"We're lost. We're <em>lost. <em>How in the _world _can we be _lost _if we're in the middle of a town that's not much bigger than a _postage stamp?_" Ellis' tirade went generally unheeded by Din. He'd had enough of the old lady to last him a lifetime. They'd left in the middle of the day to go and get some things from the local market. Instead, Ellis got sidetracked by a local diamond salesman, and she ended up buying five fake diamonds for almost a hundred pounds each, and as if to add insult to injury they were now hopelessly confounded about their location. They'd asked for directions from fifteen different people as to how they were to get to their hotel, and they'd received fifteen different answers.

"Womahn, let me _t'ink _for a momen', yeh? For deh love a God in deh heavens, I ain't never heard no womahn whine like you," he sighed in a long-suffering fashion, wiping the sweat off his forehead. Despite the fact it was now eight o' clock, it was still deathly humid. At least the air was cool. That was a small gift. He put on his smile, albeit wearily, as another woman came by. Ellis made indignant grumblings as Din walked up to her.

"Mum, could ye spare a sec'nd fuh two poor, lost trav'lers? We be needin' ta get to deh Konigsee Hotel, y'know, 'n we just need d'recshuns," he said, his warm voice giving his question tone and depth. The woman pursed her lips, her dark skin practically made of dark ebony under the night firmament, and she leaned towards him conspiratorially.

"En't nobohdy dat go down dat way, but... I believe I kin tell ye if I get a little start fer my memory," she said. Din winced as he opened his wallet surreptitiously. Two, measly looking bills stared up at him, and the coin pocket coughed dust. Exaggeratedly, the woman began to walk away, and Din sighed.

"I give you five quid, how that sound?" Din called, and the woman considered it. Shrugging, she walked back towards him, and she quickly gave him a run-through of how to get there. This time, Din was sure to pay very close attention to the streets the woman was talking about. Finally, she walked away, and as she did a small child ran up to her from behind Din, tapping her arm and smiling. Din waved to them and said to Ellis, "Methinks we got our wey back to deh hotel, Mum." Ellis clapped her hands in delight, ever energetic, if cranky.

"Wonderful! Now, I just need fifteen shillings. Dear, do you have fifteen shillings? I mean to get that beautiful little stuffed doll for Nthanda. Every child absolutely _must _have a doll. You can't have a childhood without one," Ellis said imperialistically, giving the impression of demanding. Din was used to this sort of behavior. Already, he had three different bags of doodads that Ellis had wanted to buy from street vendors, along with food. To the Lord above, she could eat like Death himself. Men would be put to shame in the light of her appetite.

"Alright, alright, I get deh do- My wallet. It's gone," Din said, suddenly in surprise. He patted his tan uniform, searching. He'd just had it... Suddenly, he remembered the young woman and the boy who'd run up to her, excited, and Din deflated as he moaned, "Oh, no, no, no." He threw up his hands, and Ellis frowned at him.

"Well, where is it?"

"... In de hends of a smohll chil' who just walked awey 'bout ten minutes ago."

* * *

><p>"What did you do, swim in a cesspool?" Kanda grumbled irately as he uncovered the wounds along Vanya's side and arm. For the most part, her arm was fine, but her side was leaking pus, and it was obvious that despite their best efforts to keep it clean it was infected. Presumably, Kanda's had been infected by a piece of Akuma flesh still buried in his wound, but this was a more mortal sort of disease. Vanya continued to shake, open to the air and chilly. She grasped a towel to her front, closing her eyes as Kanda prodded the red, angry flesh around the wound. He took a wash cloth and began to clear away what he could off the wound. It seemed that they were doing nothing <em>but <em>taking care of wounds these days. They were lucky to go a single twenty-four hours before someone got hurt.

The two were silent, both of them almost seeming to be ultrasensitive to their respective predicaments, hers being her vulnerability and his being a certain sort of ignorance towards dealing with women, especially those with flesh exposed whether by extenuating circumstances or otherwise. Their conversation was terse and clipped, almost mechanical, as Nthanda rolled around the bed, playing with a string of rosary beads that Kanda had handed him from Ellis' suitcase. He'd never seen her use them, so he decided that perhaps they were more trinket than holy item. Besides, there was something endearing about a child playing with a length of rosary beads.

"Vanya, why do you pin bugs?" he suddenly asked out of the blue. He knew so little about his partner. She was both enemy and friend - though friend was an awfully strong word to describe the other side of their relationship. He didn't like the fact she was mysterious. It made her... somewhat dangerous. She had an upper hand, of sorts. Lavi's curiosity had sort of rubbed off on him, as well, and he couldn't help but ask. It was an odd habit he'd watched her perform many a time, even on the train they'd hitched a ride on.

"Tch, I do not just _pin _bugs. I collect species," Vanya elaborated almost condescendingly, immediately putting Kanda in mind to scrub harder than necessary. He adjusted the ladder as necessary over the bed, having already set up a system of strings in order to get the best lighting possible. The moon did a fair job, as well, but it had a tendency to create shadows and hide problems.

"That doesn't explain why," Kanda grumbled darkly. Vanya suddenly went very still again. She'd go through spells of becoming incredibly still and silent, usually calling Kanda to just bury her and be done with it. These spells only lasted a few moments, though, and she relaxed again. He guessed the pain was making her seize up and stiffen in response to control it, a practice he himself knew was short term. She would only tire herself out.

"My...twin brother did it. He could not... could not finish the collection before he died. We would catch and examine insects together as children," Vanya said quietly. Kanda chewed this idea over. She was doing it for her dead brother. How sweet. He could just about puke from it. It sounded like a stupid reason to continue a hobby. Couldn't she have just told him that she liked to collect dead bugs?

"What good does it do to finish his collection? He's dead," Kanda said bluntly, beating the topic over the head with a club. Along with bedside manner, _tact _also had much to be desired in regards to Kanda's social skills. Vanya stayed quiet several more moments, and Kanda kept cleaning. Almost as an afterthought, she stated, "It reminds me of him. I did not think he could be taken so quickly." Kanda peered at her face, realizing that she was quietly crying. Her nose dribbled, and she wiped at it, tears mingling with snot. She wasn't a loud crier or a pretty crier - she just... well, cried.

Kanda resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Instead, he started to bandage the wound, looking away from her. He felt uncomfortable watching a CROW cry. It was as if he couldn't believe what his eyes were telling him, and yet it was sitting right there in his presence. Vanya suddenly brought her knees to her chest, and Kanda almost grabbed his own side in sympathy. That had to hurt.

"Stay still. I'm not done yet," Kanda said, though his tone was gentler than he would've liked. It was an automatic response; it was as if he couldn't control it. Sighing to himself and facing away from her, he finally asked in a begrudging, almost sheepish, tone, "When... did he die?" Vanya's answer was very quiet, so quiet he almost didn't hear it.

"Two days before I reached you and Din in Joburg." Kanda's eyes widened at the realization of how fresh her brother's death must have been. He felt himself sober completely, his annoyance disappearing as if mist before the sun. In a way, he guessed he could empathize; Alma's death had been just as sudden to him, and, in a way... that wound had never truly healed either. After losing Alma so gruesomely, Kanda had been inconsolable, unreachable, and quiet as stone. It had taken a long while for the people in the European HQ to even get a word out of him. In a way, he was slightly amazed at just how able she was in the light of her brother's death.

"Were you close?" he asked quietly, turning his head to peer over his shoulder. Vanya looked over her shoulder at him, her bangs falling away to reveal the dots on her forehead that marked her as CROW. Kanda felt that old pinch of distrust, but for the moment he ignored it. Her lip quivered, and she put her hands to her mouth as she closed her eyes.

"Yes. Very close," she stated. Nthanda, at this point, had taken notice of Vanya, and he crawled over to the two with a curious expression. He pressed a hand to Vanya's face, and the woman blinked in surprise as the child looked up at Kanda. The baby waved a hand at Kanda and babbled almost indignantly, as if Kanda were disobeying him somehow. Kanda shook his head and bent to pick up the baby, careful to remain clear of Vanya as he did so. He took a hold of the upper arm of a single limb and -

The world changed in a way he had not expected. He was deeply within his mind's eye, as if it were his dominant pair rather than the eyes situated in his head. Through someone else's point of view, he could see a young man, also a CROW by the dots on his forehead, with black hair and a bright smile that he suspected was Vanya's brother. Information of her brother flooded him, all sorts of things that were useless yet precious, like the way he liked his eggs, his favorite sort of specimens, the fact that he had a fondness for coffee, his boundless enthusiasm towards his work. Automatically reminded of Alma, he supplied an exchange of information, aware that Vanya had gasped by a jolt of senses.

Kanda finally gained control once more before he could give too much away, and he yanked his hand back, leaving Nthanda staring up at him with a look that was too deep for a baby of only nine months to possess. Vanya and Kanda looked at the babe with a look akin to awe.

"What was that?" Vanya asked, wiping tears from her eyes. "_Who _was that?" Kanda felt shaken by the experience, suddenly feeling a backlash of grief. It was like he'd caught a wind of Vanya's own emotions and thoughts, and he felt sick to his stomach from the shared encounter. Kanda shook his head, and he said, "No one you need to know." He finished up quickly, careful not to touch Nthanda again, and he put everything away.

"Scoot over so I can sleep later. We're sharing," Kanda said abruptly, almost in an absent-minded manner. Vanya was appropriately shocked by the suggestion, and Kanda belligerently retorted, "It's not like we're going to sleep with each other in our condition. I'd rather jump in a pit full of vipers. You're in no condition to sleep on the floor, and I'm in no condition to be sleeping on the floor either. Suck it up and get over it. It's happening." Vanya didn't say anything else, only backing up as close to the window as she could. Kanda picked up the baby from the bed, and he walked over to the phone pack that Din had left behind.

Geez, they'd been gone so long...

* * *

><p>"I am not going to carry you."<p>

"Please. It's only another mile! How could you be cruel to such an old woman? I have arthritic knees!"

"Ellis, Mum, you en't dat old."

"I'm flattered by that phrase, but unfortunately I refuse to believe it. Wait, didn't we pass that stop sign before?"

"What sign? You mean dat street sign, Mum? No, nu-uh, we en't pass it 'fore. I... I t'ink..."

"No, I'm certain we've passed it twice already. See the little smudge? That's from me whacking this bag on it."

"Oh... but Mum... that means we been goin' in circles. 'N me d'recshuns en't wrong, cuz I wrote 'em down."

"I beg to differ, my dear. Perhaps we made a wrong turn somewhere."

"Den we should start over?"

"If we do that, we'll be even _more _lost than when we started..."

"So keep goin'?"

"Yes, I believe we keep going. Oh, dear, my poor, arthritic knees. All I asked for was a single piggyback ride, and from a young, agile man to boot, but do I get anything for my pains? Nooooo."

* * *

><p>After finally figuring out how the phone worked, Kanda decided to call Lavi. He'd made sure Vanya was fast asleep first, which didn't take long considering her exhausted state. She must've been like that since Din and Ellis had left. He itched at his neck, the new skin irritating him. It still hurt like the devil, but at the least he wasn't feverish anymore. Kanda sat on the floor with Nthanda in his lap, playing with a strand of hair that had escaped the confines of his ponytail. Nthanda gurgled at Kanda, and the man put the phone between his ear and shoulder in order to keep his hands busy with the kid.<p>

Finally, there was a dial tone, and he waited a few moments. Craning his neck was really beginning to stretch his wound, and he wasn't sure how long the connection would last. Out here in the middle of the African wilderness, reception was spotty, especially for a phone pack. Nthanda suddenly began to bounce up and down, babbling, almost as if he were dancing, and Kanda nearly smiled. The kid was something else. Nthanda stomped his feet and almost fell on his rump as Kanda caught him.

Suddenly, there was a response from the phone.

"Hello?" Kanda sighed imperceptibly with a touch of relief. Hearing a familiar voice was such a good feeling, even if it was _that _redhead. He sounded a bit preoccupied, though, as if there were other things on his mind. He was probably imagining all the skirts he was going to chase, more than likely. Kanda answered back in his usual, caustic way.

"Idiot, you kept me waiting. Don't you know that I'm in the middle of nowhere? Stupid connection could go out at any time," Kanda grumbled into the phone, being quiet so as to keep from waking the CROW in the bed not ten feet away. He could hear people speaking in the background, and Kanda guessed he must be in a phone room. He put in mind the question he was going to ask carefully, knowing that Lavi was an idiot and took things literally. Anything he asked, he had to word carefully because if he didn't he'd get _exactly _what he'd asked for - which wasn't necessarily what he was asking for.

"W-w-what are you calling for? You're not one to make social calls, after all," Lavi answered, his baritone voice quavering unexpectedly. Kanda frowned as he realized that Lavi sounded as if he were under a surprising amount of tension. It wasn't often that Lavi stuttered. His tongue as slick as an oil spill, and it was rare to hear him slip up when speaking. Kanda himself hardly got a stutter response even pointing a sword in his face. Something wasn't quite right; he could tell that almost immediately.

"Tch. Typical. Look, I need a favor," Kanda said, glancing over at Vanya. She had her back to him, and she'd chosen to sleep in pajamas, thank goodness. Her shoulder rose and fell with each breath, slow and steady. That was a good sign. She was still feverish, and Kanda reminded himself to take the blankets off. It was impossibly humid, and that'd make her body temperature harder to bring down. Realizing he was actually _thinking _about taking care of the CROW, he immediately slammed his train of thought to a halt. He shouldn't get attached - to _either _of these bozos. She wasn't part of the objective and therefore disposable; the baby was part of the objective, and therefore a mission in and of himself. He had to keep that in mind. Suddenly, he heard the sound of a bullet going through glass and something else.

"What was that?" Kanda asked, deadpan. Of course he was in the middle of a firefight. That was the _only _sort of time he could call him. Just his luck. In the background people screamed, belying Lavi's response of, "Nothing! Nothing, just, uh, tell me what you wanted." Kanda put Nthanda on his knee, and he bounced him up and down. Nthanda suddenly smiled, and Kanda felt a peculiar warmth within him as the kid flat-out enjoyed himself.

"I need some information on a mark, sort of like a seal. If you could dig around in the CROW's business, that would be good, too," Kanda said, hinting as to the subject matter of his query and where to find it. Lavi was oddly quiet as he contemplated. The sounds of fighting continued.

"Uh, yeah, sure, whatever you want," Lavi stated, and Kanda was immediately taken aback, looking at the phone from the corner of his eye with a look akin to disbelief. Did he just... give him what he wanted without a fuss? He just _agreed _to doing _work _for him without so much as a bargain. That was very strange indeed.

"I thought I'd have to beat it out of you through the phone," Kanda muttered honestly. He could practically hear Lavi's eye rattling around in his skull.

"Look, can you hurry this up? I'm a little busy at the moment." Heh, no kidding. It sounded as if a worldwide war was going on through the phone.

"Ha! Yeah right. You sit there all day and you sleep or annoy somebody. I know what you do on your downtime. Mostly because you waste all of mine." He could mess with him a little, couldn't he? Nthanda must've noticed the mischievous look in Kanda's eye, because he put his hands to his mouth with a pair of squinted, merry eyes. Kanda motioned for quiet from Nthanda with a slight smile, and Nthanda copied the motion. For a moment, Kanda actually felt proud. He understood.

"Just ... get on with it." Ah, getting a little snappy. He really must be nervous about something.

"...Alright. It's a horned mark, two horns inside a circle with writing circumscribed around it," Kanda said, describing it best he could.

"Ooooh, 'circumscribed.' You're finally using big boy words now." Now that sounded more like the Lavi Kanda knew and hated. He already had his retort up and running.

"Shut up. Just because I'm not freaking loquacious doesn't mean I can't tell my head from my back end. I'm just not a blithering idiot. The words are in some sort of Cyrillic alphabet, but it's definitely not the Cyrillic we know. I couldn't read any of it, anyhow."

"Alright, I can look it up. Do you need me to search anything in particular like certain files or paper? What did you see it on?" Kanda made a face of resignation. That one... was a little tougher to explain. More than likely, he wouldn't ask about it.

"Human flesh."

"...Ah." He was right. He didn't ask.

Kanda decided to state the obvious. He said,"You're in a fight, aren't you?" There was a pause as Lavi deliberated his words, and finally he spoke.

"Uh, yeah, just a bit of a scuffle." As if to immediately refute him, there was a scream. A _scuffle - _Lavi's definition of scuffle must mean 'massacre'.

"Tch."

"Um, hey, Kanda? Is everything alright? You sound -" Kanda hadn't expected Lavi to notice the strain in his voice. He shifted his shoulder to alleviate the stress on his neck.

"Everything's fine. Just a flesh wound to the neck. I'll survive. You don't sound good yourself." Two could play this game. Since the last he'd heard of him, Kanda could say that Lavi sounded _terrible. _He probably didn't know it, but his voice sounded rough and scratchy, almost like he hadn't been using it. There was a peculiar nervous energy in his words that spoke of something... sinister, almost. Kanda didn't like it. As much as Lavi was a nuisance and a retard, he was also a friend and comrade that he could count on. There were very few people in the world like that.

Mind you, that did _not _mean Kanda liked him. Heaven forbid Kanda ever start liking him. He'd chop off both his eggs before he started liking the redheaded, lovestruck fool.

"I've been better. But, you know, I'll survive." Huh, he thought he was so clever, echoing him. He had to hand it to him, only Lavi could think that sort of thing up in the middle of a battle.

"Like always?" Kanda asked

"Like always," Lavi sighed.

"Don't die. I need someone to beat up when I get home," Kanda ordered, putting Nthanda in the crook of his arm. The kid had slowly begun to drift to sleep with his fingers entangled in his hair. Lavi chuckled a bit.

"Hey, I need someone to annoy when I come back. Don't _you _die," Lavi challenged, and Kanda scoffed.

"As if. Idiot." He could almost feel Lavi's smile through the phone. He was actually kind of scared that he could seemingly sense the guy through the phone. What was he, his sister or something? He hung up on him, and he slowly got up. His back and shoulders hurt, almost seeming to creak as he stood up. Weary and sore, he placed Nthanda on the bed gently next to Vanya. Without waking her, Kanda pulled down the covers to expose her back and arms to the cool air, hoping to bring down her internal body temperature to a safer level. Kanda himself contemplated the sleeping arrangements, rolling his shoulders to try and loosen them up.

If he was honest, he was a little scared to sleep next to a girl. He'd never _had _this problem before. Even though he'd told Vanya to suck it up and get over it, he himself was having issues trying to decide if this was the best idea or not. Still, thinking of the soreness of his back and neck and sleeping in a chair quickly changed his mind about that particular idea. It wasn't so much that he was afraid of himself - he was afraid of _her. _He wasn't sure where it came from or why he felt it, but he was certain it definitely had to do with the fact she was a girl.

He was perfectly fine sleeping next to Bookman or Noise or Daisya or even _Froi. _Guys were... well, guys. They burped, farted, and made rude jokes. They didn't just touch each other or cry or any of that. They were easy to understand. Women ... were a different matter all together. To be honest, he had to say that women were kind of scary. Not scary as in life-threatening, but just... scary.

Taking a big breath, he sucked it up and got over it. He climbed in bed, trying to ignore her heat as he closed his eyes and made himself forget she was there.

* * *

><p>The hotel came into view.<p>

"Oh... oh my goodness gracious, we made it!" Ellis said, completely enthralled by the fact they'd made it. The city was deserted at night, and she'd been scared traveling by herself, despite Din and the small derringer she had in her purse. She was laden with bag upon bag, and Din himself was carrying a large amount of cargo. He looked over the array in his arms to almost collapse with relief at the sight of the hotel.

"God is good," he gasped as he sat climbed the stoop. He jiggled the handle of the hotel door, happy to finally be here, that they might get an actual bed, a shower, a _toilet... _

Only to find the door locked.

The two stared for a while before Ellis roared, broke down the door with a booted foot, and waltzed in as if she owned the place. Din was surprised she had that much strength in those old legs, especially given her 'arthritic knees', but he ambled in after her never the less.

She trod up the stairs towards their room, and Din made sure to get ahead of her. He had first dibs on that bathroom. They were both stinky, nasty, and travel worn. He was getting that shower. He walked into the room and immediately stopped as he realized that there were people sleeping.

"Darlings, Mummy is ho -! Oh dear, what is it?" Ellis stated irately as Din stopped her mid-sentence. He put a finger to his lips as he pointed to the bed. Ellis put a hand to her mouth as she was about to say something on the impropriety of men and women sleeping in the same bed with a lack of matrimony when she realized that it was the two people she would least have to worry about. Nevertheless, she kept it in mind to speak to them tomorrow, though for now she only smiled secretly, bemused.

Kanda was curled around Nthanda who in turn was nestled against Vanya who faced the wall and window. Quietly the two tiptoed into the room, deciding it was best just to leave them be, depositing their things as quietly as manageable.

It wasn't every day a CROW and an Exorcist managed to get along so well they could actually _sleep _next to each other. No use breaking that fragile peace now.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Hello, hello, hello! Here again with yet another chapter of goodness, which hopefully you have enjoyed. I certainly enjoyed putting out this chapter, for whatever reason. I guess I'm just on a writing streak as of yesterday - I managed to get this thing written in only a few hours! Unfortunately, you can probably tell from the spelling errors I didn't catch, and for that I apologize. I really should get a beta...

_Reviewers. _Oh, I feel so loved! Five on one chapter! My sincerest thanks to EXO178, karina001, PeachTeaKT, kaillinne arami, and ISeeClearly for their input. I love how you all have your own reviewing styles. Thank you for telling me what you love about the stories.

_Subscribers. _Another round of applause for Tomoyo-chan284 and KeidaHattori for adding this to their alert lists. Hopefully those lists are long, haha, to keep you occupied! Curse me and my erratic updating...

_Favoriteers. _Ooooh, Team Favorite is falling behind Team Subscribe. Tsk, tsk, tsk, gotta change that. Still, big thanks to BreeBree811, Tsukikami Moyizawa, dragonic-maiden365, and KKFFROKSMISOKS XD for sticking their neck out and putting this on their favorite page. It takes guts to put something like this on your favorites' tab, I always say.

Now... las preguntas! _What portion of this story did you like the most? Kanda and Vanya took more of the spotlight than Kanda and Nthanda did; is this okay or is this too deviating? There were breaks in between sections with Ellis and Din - did you mind those? Were they entertaining? What effect did it have on the story over all? What would the sections add or subtract from the story if they had been left out? Do you enjoy reading the banter? Was this chapter emotionally charged, and how? What really struck a chord in you? How did you like the tie-in with the story 'Chasing After The Wind' (for those who want to find that particular conversation from Lavi's side, it's in the chapter titled La Invasion)? _

And that's all I have for now. God bless you, and happy reading!


	10. A Far, Sweet Thing

He found himself in a valley, a massive rift in between tall, sheer mountains that almost blocked the moon. His steps were so loud in the quiet that they seemed to reverberate against the walls. Whispers flashed past him as he turned his head this way and that, trying listlessly to find the source of the voices. On every crag, a shadow seemed to perch, a half-formed face peering over the rocks. He shouted into the gloom as he walked along the bottom of the valley, calling out names he could no longer remember once they'd been issued from his mouth. Chanting took the place of the whispers, growing louder and louder from behind as he progressed, but he could not turn himself around in order to see the chanters. The shadows seemed to thicken, the shades take shape. As he walked, he realized he knew them, though the thought was vague in his mind.

The shades came down, leading him towards some destination. He followed along as if his feet knew the path better than his eyes. Idly, he recalled the faces that were racing past him.

Twi Chang walked past him, despite her current breakneck pace. Her husband trailed behind. Oddly, he had to laugh at that. Edgar could never quite keep up with his wife. A few interns that he'd been familiar with walked ahead of him. More scientists joined them on their exodus. They seemed to solidify more and more as the chanting grew louder. Dogs began to howl upon the ridges of the valley, their mournful song giving the effect of an eerie funeral procession. The shades flinched at the sound of howling, and just as soon as they'd appeared, they'd gone. He was left alone. The chanting had stopped.

And then he realized he was standing before a lake. It was long, dark, so glassy smooth that it resembled a mirror as he stared at his reflection within the water. Absentmindedly he remembered seeing this mirror before, a burst of déjà vu. The image in the water was the same as the last time he'd seen it – a man wearing white war paint, his sword slung over his back, hair tied tight into a tail with a leather cord. However, he was missing something – of that he was sure. He was meant to have some sort of companion, but he couldn't remember for the life of him who it was.

His image was joined by another, one he had seen in another life, a literal waking dream. She looked over his shoulder, that serene smile on her face. Those piercing eyes watched him in the water-mirror. His own eyes widened as recognition flooded him. He turned around, and there she stood, waiting patiently. She was just as he'd seen her all those times in the labs, and, more importantly, in his memories and midnight dreams. He lifted a hand to her face, stroking the skin. Porcelain smoothness met his fingertips. Silk strands of hair trailed over the back of his hand as he touched her hair, and she stepped closer to him, her heat so real and so near. How long had it been since he'd last seen her? He'd forgotten what it was like to touch her, to know her presence.

"You," he simply stated. She almost laughed, that fey smile flitting across her visage. He remembered he had loved that about her – her vivacity and spontaneity, so different from his strict, rigid mind and constancy.

"Me," was all she answered. Depthless eyes searched his for what seemed an eternity as she took his face in her hands, drawing him close, close enough that he could feel her breath wash over his own mouth, before she halted.

"You waited," she stated. Sadly, his eyes tightened as he reached for her, so near to him yet so, so far away—

The dream dissolved with the noise of a baby crying, and Kanda sat up in a cold sweat, feeling sick. He swiftly stood up out of bed, walking over to Nthanda's makeshift crib. The baby gasped as he cried, and Kanda groaned to himself as he rubbed his temples. Nthanda had had some very bad earaches, of which there was no cause they could discern. All they could do was soothe him the best they could. Kanda picked up the baby as gently as he was able, though he felt oddly clumsy after waking up. He cradled the baby, but Nthanda continued to cry mercilessly. Kanda hadn't been able to sleep for the past four days. Though he was used to running on the minimum amount of rest, this was stressing his abilities. Pretty soon they'd have to go to a doctor, if they could find one within range.

Their trek from the settlement of Lobatse had been made on foot. Though they managed to flag down trucks now and again, for the most part few were willing to take the travelers, especially with a screaming baby. The unrest in the area made people paranoid, and one look at Kanda had truck-drivers gunning their engines. On just about every radio band, they were warning against a man with Kanda's exact description, claiming him as a supporter of the current government and therefore an enemy of the militia. Needless to say, Kanda ignored such allegations and kept on going. The only inconvenience was the occasional militia transport, and they could usually hear them from a mile away.

Akuma were more of a problem, seeing as the ones in this area were high-leveled because of a lack of Exorcists to continually weed them out. They were crafty, too. More than once, Vanya had stepped on a truck first for safety issues only to be accosted by a face full of gun barrels. Several times, they had had no choice but to make a run for it rather than fight, especially given Nthanda's condition.

Kanda carried the baby over to the window, hoping that perhaps a fresh breeze might ease the baby back into sleep. He lifted the sash, and the cool, African night air wafted in, but it didn't abate the baby's screaming. Outside, Kanda could see Din keeping watch on the balcony. Pretty soon it would be his turn to take the watch, and the samurai wanted to shoot himself in the head. He couldn't have been asleep for more than a few hours, three at best. He wasn't sure how long he could keep this up. That dream had drained him as well, and he felt his mind boiling under the half-remembered sensations.

He'd seen her. He'd _seen _her. In the labs in China, Kanda had only ever managed to catch ghostly glimpses of that woman as she trailed behind him amid the pillars. Even as old as he was now with the memories of his past life at his disposal, he could not fully remember her face. The dream was fading from memory as well, leaving a fuzzy patch where she'd been. Kanda had wondered more than once if it was not a fact that he _couldn't _remember what she looked like, but that he _didn't _want to remember. She was the last, and only, tie to his previous life. He'd sworn to her that he'd wait.

And he had. He'd waited some thirty-nine years. And he still didn't have the foggiest idea of where she could be, what she looked like, or even her very name. All he had was an apparition that had ceaselessly followed him, a remnant of those memories of a time when he was not the him he was now. It sometimes made him wonder if there was a point to looking. After all, _he, _the other one, had made the promise to her. Kanda had not. A vestige of old, chivalrous pride must still remain, because every time Kanda saw a woman in a wide, hoop skirt and flowing sleeves with her hair in a ponytail, he could do nothing but stare and hope that he'd found her.

She'd been _so close…_

There was a knock on the door, hardly heard over Nthanda's pained wailing. Kanda felt a pang deep within him, something he'd slowly grown used to over the past few days. He hated to hear the kid cry like this. Crying for food, for water, for toys, that was different from the utter, agonizing screams the baby had right now. Perhaps it was human instinct, but Kanda would give anything to make his pain stop. If only to stop his blasted screaming.

"'S unlocked," Kanda said tersely, not willing to move from the window. Din's head poked through, and he smiled wanly. In the dark, he was near invisible.

"Mistuh Kanda, 's youh turn for deh watch. I 'pologize, dough. Perraps I tek a sec'nd watch, letcha sleep a bit longuh, what wid deh babe," Din offered, his accent more pronounced now that he was tired. Kanda was tempted to take the offered rest, but he wasn't going to let something like a little lack of sleep keep him from making sure his mission was completed. He'd lose that much more response time if he were asleep and had to get back up again. He grumbled, "I'm fine. Get to bed." Din hesitated at the door, but he finally withdrew into the confines of the suite room the Order had put on their itinerary.

Kanda thought about the Order's list of hotels already paid for within the English Protectorate of South Africa as he walked out onto the balcony. Even now, they couldn't open a portal, despite the fact Kanda _knew _that Allen had been found. He'd had a short conversation with Lavi while he was en route to Guatemala, and the redhead had been awfully confused about the entire premise. He had also made no headway on Kanda's last request, seeing as his own research was being waylaid by the fact he was going to be stuck on a boat for a while. Kanda didn't mind – it wasn't a pressing matter. Still, he made his annoyance very clear, and Lavi had abruptly hung up without another word, very odd for the redhead. Something was definitely wrong on that side of the world for Lavi to give up the last word.

The samurai sat down on the balcony overlooking the forests beyond. This portion of South Africa was heavily wooded with thickets of trees and patches of open, green land. It was no wonder that the English and Dutch had come to snatch it up. It looked remarkably similar to the European forests. Kanda, however, would've been more pleased with an open plain. In the trees it was too easy to imagine all sorts of things hiding.

Nthanda's wailing reached a new pitch and volume, and Kanda knew that he was going to have to take him to a doctor tomorrow. They'd thought the earache would go away on its own, but that obviously was not the case. Kanda extended a finger to the baby wearily, feeling like his eyelids were about to slam shut, and Nthanda took the finger and teethed on it. On top of the earache, he was having teething issues as well. From what Ellis had to say, it was unusual for a baby to get teeth so late, but it wasn't anything serious.

"Some babies just happen to be late bloomers," she'd shouted over the massive noise. Kanda scoffed to himself as he thought about the woman making a raucous, nightly noise on the couch. Kanda had never realized just how loud that woman could snore until he'd shared a room with all four of his companions in Lobatse. _No one _got sleep that night.

As the baby gummed on his finger with sharp, nearly-there baby teeth, he lessened his sobbing, but continued to gasp and cry. Kanda winced as the sharp corner of a new tooth managed to bite down hard enough through the calluses to actually pain him. He made another mental note to get the kid a pacifier, if they ever managed to find another town.

This was a fairly fancy inn, but it was also a midway point between two towns. It would take them probably two days to reach the next big settlement, a trip Kanda was dreading. His foul mood kept growing fouler with every step they took, and it was taking a toll on his traveling companions. Even Din was careful about what he said to the samurai lest he receive a verbal lashing from the dour Japanese Exorcist. The only one who appeared somewhat unfazed was Ellis, who continued to be prim and proper to such an extent that Kanda was tempted to smash every single tiny fork and teacup in her little dinner set.

There was a soft knock on the balcony door, and Kanda didn't even bother to look.

"Go away. I'm busy," he grumbled. He did _not _want company. Company meant he actually had to interact. Interaction meant actual effort on his part. Interaction meant _people._

"I hev somezing to stop ze babe from crying," a soft voice stated over Nthanda's sobbing cries, and equally soft footsteps padded on the platform. Kanda continued to stare straight ahead out over the forests, and Vanya sat down next to him as best she could with the limited space. He didn't deign to scoot over to give her room.

The CROW reached for the babe, and Kanda shot her a dangerous look out of the corner of his eye. Vanya, for once, hesitated before taking the baby from Kanda, and Nthanda resumed crying at an increased volume.

"Now look what you did. And I just got him to quit," Kanda snorted, his tone scathing. Vanya was expressionless as ever as she turned the baby over on his side and took a small dropper. She began to drip something into the baby's ear, a solution from a small bottle. The babe suddenly began to quiet, and Kanda narrowed his eyes suspiciously at the CROW.

"What was that?" he demanded, and Vanya gave one of her few expressions, a lifted eyebrow. She handed back the baby, who was beginning to fall asleep, exhausted.

"A homemade remedy. Alexei and I… vould geht constant eareches. My father vould drip it into our ears et night, end in ze day it vould hurt less. I edded a small portion of dat pain medication I vas given," Vanya explained, the last comment followed up by a swift and accusing look at Kanda. He gave his usual answer: "Tch."

Vanya's infection had forced him to take her to the hospital against her will. She had a very distinct hate for hospitals and the ilk living within them, so Kanda literally carried her kicking and screaming. It was for her own good. After all, she was obviously much better now, and she could resume her duties as Nthanda's personal guard dog and playmate. All's well that ends well. Kanda was silent, not bothering to add further comment, and Vanya got up.

"I ken take ze vatch, if you need to sleep," she offered, and Kanda gave her a disgusted glance.

"I don't need help," he stated simply, shifting in his spot on the balcony. The marble floor was hard and unforgiving on bony behinds.

"Oh, I em shore, you do not," Vanya retorted in a sarcastic tone as she leaned over him. Kanda's very aura seemed to darken at the implication that he couldn't do his job, and Vanya straightened back up, looking over the forests.

"I ken not sleep, anyvays. You, on ze other hand, hev dat ahbeelity. Use it," she urged. "Practically, you need rest the mohst. You are the ohnly defense ve have against ze Akuma. Somevon can die from you neglecting yoorself." Kanda couldn't beat her logic. Despite his near inhuman limits, this baby had pushed all of them back as far as he could go. Kanda didn't think he'd even taken a crap for the past three days he was so preoccupied with taking care of the kid. It seemed like every other minute the kid would _poof _and disappear for a few minutes, and Kanda would have to go and track him down. Somehow he had some sort of intuitive sense as to where the baby would be after a teleport, and for that Kanda was thankful. He'd nearly lost the kid countless times. To add to the workload, the baby was sick, hungry, and constantly in need of attention some way or another. Even in his sickened state, the kid wanted to get into everything, and Kanda had to be sure to follow him where ever he went. This was the most tiring trip he'd ever been on.

"Fine," he grumbled in angry dejection. The baby was only whimpering now, and he reached for a strand of Kanda's hair. The following tug was strangely reassuring to the man, and he cradled the baby carefully as he stood up.

"Vat did you dream about?" Vanya suddenly asked, and he stared at her back. She was facing the woods, outlined by wan moonlight. He was struck by the question as if someone had beat him up the side of the head.

"What?" he asked, not sure he'd heard correctly.

"You vere speaking in yoor sleep. Vat did you dream about?" she asked, a hint of curiosity in her voice. Kanda walked away without another word.

_She_ was something he could share with no one. It was his personal crusade, his one last goal, perhaps his only goal for this life. He couldn't tell anyone about her, not in depth. For some reason, it would feel wrong.

As he went back to his room, he felt a stirring of loss so profound it shook him while he stood by the crib they'd fashioned from a basket, some sheets, and chicken mesh. Vanya's contraption was surprising resilient. As he laid Nthanda back inside on the sheets, he could feel a foreign lump build in his throat, like someone had clogged it with clay.

He'd only felt this sort of grief once, a long time ago. It lurked within every thought of her, that inordinately massive feeling of sorrow. He knew he'd never find another like her. Not in this life, not in the next life, not in the life after that, if it went on and on and on. Kanda was not a sentimental man, but he knew what love felt like. His past memories could give him that much information. Still, they were the ghosts of feelings, the barest wisps of the essence of those emotions. Just enough to give him a taste, the smallest amount, and leave him longing to know what the actual thing was like yet always knowing he'd never reach it.

He was hardwired to circumvent this thing, 'love', in order to complete his purpose. The concept fit nowhere in his equation. Without the memories stored within his brain, if he could call it his, he would've never known what love _actually _felt like. Perhaps that was why they had been so intent on destroying him. He was damaged goods. His equation had been tampered with. He was anomalous in ways that Alma had not been.

And yet here he was, and here Alma was not.

The upwelling of grief crescendoed until he didn't think he could contain it. It had been a long time since he'd thought of either Alma or the woman he was searching for, much less both of them at the same time. Everything he loved, everything he touched, seemed to wither away from him. Perhaps his arrogance and cold demeanor were a subconscious means of protecting those around him. After all, if a person could not understand love or replicate and reciprocate it, didn't that mean he would somehow hurt those around him in one fashion or another?

Feeling numb, he realized he was lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling. As a kid, he'd stared at another ceiling, one with friezes and dark shadows that created faces and shapes. He and Alma would point and tell each other what they thought each one was. Kanda's had always been something oddly morose, or perhaps strangely morbid. Alma's was usually something verging on the absolutely absurd.

"_That one's a bean riding on a donkey to a castle with a princess waiting for him to save her!"_

"_Alma, that's stupid. It's a bear eating a donkey, and it's not running to a castle, it's trying to throw itself off a cliff."_

"_Awww, come on, Yuu, that's terrible! Sheesh, you're so negative."_

"_It's a lot more interesting than your bean on a donkey."_

"_What about that one? Doesn't it remind you of Twi when…"_

Abruptly, Kanda realized that he had almost never dug up memories of his life before the Incident. He felt breathless as each one led to another, skipping around to those few bright moments in his life in the labs. Some of them were very fuzzy. He could only really remember one defining portion of the memory, usually some colors or a sound. Others were so incredibly clear, it was like it had happened mere hours ago.

And, all of a sudden, he realized he missed his best friend. This was the sort of harebrained journey Alma would've enjoyed. A mission across the African continent with nothing but a baby and their wits – it practically shouted Alma.

But he wasn't here.

Kanda really, really, really wished he could go home. He wasn't being a ninny or a whiner or any of those things he hated; he truly knew that he needed to go home and take a break. He was becoming emotionally compromised the longer he stayed here, and that would impair his judgment.

It didn't help that he just wanted to go to the training room and beat the ever-living snot out of a few rookie Finders to make himself feel better. Shamelessly, he knew that he beat people up as a pick-me-up. It was therapeutic somehow. And he only ever challenged people who were willing to fight – it wasn't like he found random passersby and socked them dead in the face. There was no enjoyment in that. Not to mention it was petty.

With these thoughts in mind, he began to drift off to sleep. Thankfully, he didn't dream.

* * *

><p>Another imaginary enemy was sliced to shreds. Ellis had called their little trip to a halt after she'd discovered a bunion on her toe, and she'd acted as if her entire foot was going to fall apart. Yet another invisible target succumbed to a steel blade. In fact, Ellis had the gall to ask Kanda if he'd carry her! The next adversary went down in ribbons, a poor sapling that had had so much to live for. And then, to top it all off, Ellis had refused to move once they'd realized that it wasn't even serious.<p>

Kanda did another eight-stroke lotus bloom strike, the vacuum created by the sword blade enough to actually suck dust into the strokes and paint the air with the adjoining attack. The dust smacked against a tree, cutting straight into the bark, but it didn't fell it. Kanda snorted. He was getting soft.

Nthanda sat on the ground with Din, wearily banging on his drum with a slowness born of exhaustion. The baby had been listless and cranky after his earache, but he was definitely in better shape today. The only person allowed to pick him up now was Kanda, and it was playing havoc on the samurai's nerves. At random moments in the day, the baby would cry, and the only one who could console the poor thing was the long-haired man who wanted nothing to do with the kid for the next few days.

"Oooh, good job. Now again, with feeling!" Ellis said from her perch on a fence, and Kanda resisted the urge to cut off her skirts and let her walk all the way to the next town in her underwear. He could feel a twitch develop in his eye, and the heat was not helping at all. Luckily the trees provided quite a bit of shade. Vanya was lounging on the ground, lazily playing with her switchblades. She'd recently restocked on spell tags, and Kanda had never quite realized just how much time it took to paint every individual tag. It had taken the better part of five hours on a rickety cart pulled by oxen to paint enough for a single binding spell. Kanda just about went cross eyed watching her paint the same thing over and over.

"How about again, on your face," he muttered under his breath, and Ellis asked, "Excuse me, would you repeat that?"

"Nothing, Granny. Just talking about giving you an impromptu face lift," Kanda retorted, and Ellis let her mouth hang open.

"Well, pardon me for my age and wisdom! It's not something I can control, dear, I'll have you know! Besides, I'm not a day over forty-five," Ellis professed with a flourish, and Kanda grumbled, "No, you're _too many _days over forty-five." He suddenly directed a slash at the post she was sitting on, and with hardly a groan it suddenly collapsed under her, dumping the lady on the dusty ground. She huffed as she picked herself up in a massive pile of fabric and indignation. Din snickered, and Nthanda ignored the commotion. Vanya slowly clapped, and Kanda gave a cheeky bow.

"If you are so good et vat you do, pehrheps you vould not mind giving me ze honor of a spar?" Vanya asked in a mock formal tone, mimicking a man asking for a dance.

"Tch." Taking that as an affirmative, Vanya very suddenly lunged in a blur of black cloth and bandages, and Kanda easily blocked a dig from a knife. They were careful to stay away from their spectators in case a slash went wide or a knife was deflected on accident. Sparks literally flew between the two as they furiously went for first blood. Kanda could actually feel sweat running down his neck. Vanya herself looked like she was beginning to run out of breath. This was the first time they'd actually _fought _for a while. Despite the Akuma attacks, Kanda had had no actual problems with the Level Ones and Twos, and the Threes had been so numerous that he dared not fight with Nthanda strapped to him. Unburdened by his charge, he had a freedom of movement he'd forgotten about completely.

Vanya herself had not sparred at all since her mishap at the bridge. She'd exercised rigorously once she was able, but actual footwork and knife-play had been thrown to the wayside these past few days on the road. Both were very aware of just how rusty they were with actual technique and finesse as they pushed each other back and forth across their stretch of dirt next to the road.

_Duck, parry, switch, sidestep, block, parry again, dodge, slash, there's an opening –_

It was a dance that both had forgotten. They were clumsy at first, stepping on each other's toes, making mistakes as they left themselves unguarded, and making unnecessarily flourished moves. However, after the first two minutes, they had fallen into an easy rhythm and begun to understand the other's fighting style. Both were dripping after the next two minutes, easily realizing that they were both almost equal in regards to their chosen weapons. However, Kanda had drawn first blood, and Vanya had yet to make a scratch on either the blade or its owner. Vanya's expressionless face twitched into her signature brittle smile as Kanda regarded her from a distance, the both of them making mental moves and formulating plans against their opponent.

"Ellis could move faster than you with all her skirts," Kanda taunted, and Vanya cocked her head in response.

"Mine grandmother hed two broken feet, end she hed better footwahrk than you do," Vanya retorted back. Suddenly, the two rejoined in a flurry of slashes and parries. Kanda didn't dare use his extra strength and speed for this duel. He still had a bit of honor left to him. It would've been unfair if he'd used his complement of other abilities against her. After all, she'd refrained from using her spells and other assorted goodies. This was a pure battle of blades.

The two locked against each other, two knife blades crossed against a samurai blade at hip height. Both contenders' arms shook as they struggled to hold the block. They were hairsbreadths away from each other, Vanya's head just under Kanda's shoulder. Compared to the bigger man, she looked like a fragile porcelain doll – albeit a very dangerous one.

"You're good," Vanya said, her brittle smile turning to an all-out grin. Kanda had to say he was enjoying himself as well. It wasn't often he came up against someone who was almost as proficient as himself in the art of blades. It'd been a long time since he'd met an actual challenge. The last had been at the Order Headquarters after Lavi had wagered an entire month's worth of soba noodles against his yakiniku. Needless to say, Kanda had won after a grueling two hour duel with the redhead.

"Wrong – I'm better," Kanda corrected as he suddenly drew his blade upwards and sidestepped the flashing pair of switchblades. He aimed a smack with the flat of his blade at her back, but she was already ducking beneath it. Kanda recalibrated the strike, switching from his right hand to his left, and swung down. The CROW danced away from the blade, nearly jackknifing in midair to keep clear. Vanya stepped in close, too close for him to use his blade properly, and with a light step used his knee as a literal stepping stool. She suddenly sailed over his shoulder, and Kanda ducked as knives penetrated the air above his head. She was fast, and this was only just after her recovery.

He pivoted, flicking the blade with his wrist behind him, and Vanya was forced to dance away yet again, giving Kanda the necessary breathing room to come up with a rudimentary plan. It was only after a few seconds of glancing at Vanya that he noted she was holding something between two fingers. His eyes widened as he felt his ponytail and realized that there was a small strand of hair missing, the sharp, newly cut edge prickling against his fingers. Vanya lifted a teasing eyebrow as she waved the strand of hair. Kanda glowered at her, standing up into his near-six-foot frame. Vanya drew up to her entire four-foot-eleven frame, putting the strand of hair into a pocket.

"You're better? Are you shoor?" she asked, the first time Kanda had seen her remotely playful.

"Tch." The eye-twitch was back. That should've been the first indicator of how far things were going to go downhill.

"Ooooh, I think things are heating up," Ellis stated, watching enraptured. Din winced as the fighting became that much fiercer. Those sparks were getting dangerously large. Did they have to hit each other that hard?

"You t'ink we should stop dem 'fore it gets serious…?" Din asked. Ellis whooped with a pumped fist as Kanda kicked Vanya's legs out from under her.

"You can't be serious. This is the most excitement we've had since that hooker in Lobatse sat in your lap and asked if you would like to make use of her services!" Ellis said, galled at the very notion of stopping such an interesting altercation. It wasn't often that CROW and Exorcists allowed spectators to their little matches, Ellis knew that. Din stared at the sky in bewilderment. Nthanda watched with apt deliberation, his little child mind working to understand the scene in front of him. He started to beat his drum with a little more fervor, babbling as he did so.

"Come on, walk it off, walk it off!" Ellis shouted as Kanda took a tumble in the grass. That little girl was a lot stronger than she looked, but then again, she could actually fend off Kanda's blade with what looked like hardly any effort. By now they were tiring out significantly, their blows becoming more and more haphazard. Din winced as Vanya finally got her cut in, a shallow line across Kanda's cheek. Kanda's own corresponding blood letting was leaking from Vanya's jaw. Of course, the two were getting sloppier and sloppier, and their spar was quickly devolving into a battle of taunts, insults, and underhanded shots.

"Mistuh Kanda mus' be real mad she got a piece of 'is hair. Sheesh, Missuz Vanya is strong. That sword went pretty far and… now they're just punching each other," Din stated in a deadpan, unsurprised voice. The both of them were hurling insults in their respective languages, and this was becoming more of a dirt-wrestling-match than a spar.

"Whack him a good one! Come on, you can do better than that!" Ellis shouted through cupped hands, and Nthanda babbled his own response, smacking his drum enthusiastically. Vanya suddenly crashed into the fence, and she lay there for a moment, dazed, in the heap of wood. She suddenly launched herself with a few Russian curses at the samurai beckoning her with two fingers.

"Ouch! I didn' t'ink someone could bend that way," Din stated. They were slowing down at the least. Din was beginning to finally enjoy himself, now that it was clear that neither was going to injure the other. Vanya was slide tackled into the dust, and she quickly followed up with a swift kick to the head. Ellis whistled loud as Kanda finally pinned Vanya completely, and the samurai grabbed one of Vanya's abandoned knives.

"Ooooh dear," Ellis muttered, swiftly trying to get up amid her massive pool of skirts.

However, she didn't have much to worry about. Kanda situated his knees on Vanya's arms and dragged out one of her braids. With a single snip, he took it off, and he dangled it in her glowering face.

"Who's better now?" Kanda taunted childishly, pocketing his trophy.

"We'll see," Vanya promised. The two of them extricated themselves from each other and dusted off. The two regarded each other, Vanya with a piece of hair dangling in her face and Kanda with a single, short piece sticking straight out of his ponytail. It may have been Ellis's imagination, but it seemed that the two looked at each other with a small modicum of respect, at least underneath the layers of antagonism and annoyance. It was not so much that each had met their match – it was obvious that in a straight fight, Kanda would win if it weren't for his immature streak. More to the point, the other had proven they were able to defend their reputation and abilities.

Kanda picked up Nthanda, who was staring at the two warriors listlessly. Suddenly started to swing his arms about, mimicking the harried, quick thrusts of a knife fighter and the long, languid arcs of a samurai.

"Tch. We're a bad influence," Kanda noted with the slightest shade of a smile. Nthanda burbled, and Din laughed.

"Met'inks, he tryin' to taunt ya, Mistuh Kanda, into a fight," he chuckled. Ellis tutted.

"Enough of this tomfoolery," she said huffily, lifting her skirts as she headed towards the road. "We really must be going." Kanda and Din shared a look as Vanya trailed behind her.

"She ees right. Sunset's coming," she stated. Kanda and Din picked up their bags and began to follow. Cheekily, Vanya dangled the strand of hair over her shoulder, and Kanda glowered.

Soon. Just… Soon.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** Yippee! I was working on this at my grandma's house. It had taken me a while to get an idea going, but I finally hit inspiration after listening to some Lana Del Ray. The weirdest stuff happens when you listen to music.

Anyhow, big thanks to my reviewers! There are so many for the last chapter, I almost don't have enough space to write for all of it. I can't contain my happiness! Tintaglia, those reviews were way helpful. I loved that you went and did just about every chapter. They're good insight on each, and I love the depth. Keep up the good work! The same goes for Lotus seed and the amazing review you left for me to pour over. Karina001, your reviews are very poetic, and they give a deep emotional tether to the rest of the chapter and describe it (and its subjects) aptly. Big thanks as well to Keida Hattori, cheesybeans, and KHFFROKSMYSOCKS XD for their two cents, as well, as they were a humorous two cents. And of course, that anonymous reviewer, whoever they were, thank you.

Much to my sadness, I have no new subscribers to add to that fair family. Alas.

And last, but not least, lots of love to Annie Matsukaze and DGraymanGRL for favoriting Afrikaan Voices. It's always nice to have a little of appreciation, as well as a bit of advertising there.

Now: the discussion questions! _This is the first sparring session between Kanda and Vanya; do you think that either overpowered the other too easily, was it too evenhanded, or was it well done? How was Nthanda's reaction? Are the characters at all interesting or well characterized? Are there any Mary Sue tendencies running amok? What did you like the most about this chapter? What emotions were evoked due to the dream; sadness, happiness, boredom, bitterness? Are there any discrepancies with the plot as far as you can tell? Are you still enjoying the story? Is there anything that it needs?_

Well, that's it. God bless you and happy reading until next time!


	11. It Wasn't His Day

He woke up and just knew it'd be a bad day. It may be due to the nature of his birth or something about his composition. It could be that all the intensive anticipation training he'd gone through with Tiedoll had spilled out into his everyday life. Sheesh, it could be that his freaking gut was psychic. Kanda was incredibly intuitive to his surroundings, and even right as he woke up he could make an assessment.

One day he'd had that feeling and ignored it. He never saw the bucket coming down as Lavi dropped it from a second story balcony on accident. He'd ended up with bleached blonde hair for about a week before he had to dye it out of vanity.

Another day went by, this one foreboding despite how sunny it had been. Kanda had the worst case of sunburn the Order doctors had ever seen, and _no, _his regeneration ability did _not _extend to already-dead epithelial cells, as if to add insult to injury.

Yet another day had the same, unspoken harbinger of doom, and, lo and behold, he managed to get five Finders killed in one mission, his Exorcist partner ended up stabbed thirty different times before bleeding half to death, and he'd met _Allen _of all people.

He could wake up and just know that it was going to be a bad day.

_Today_ was going to be a bad day.

"Rise and shine, dear one! The birds are tweeting, the sun is shining, and there's a hot shower calling our name!" Ellis sang cheerily through his tent opening. Kanda just _barely _managed to refrain from throwing one of his boots at her immaculately prim head. He rolled over and shoved his head under the pillow, hearing the sounds of clattering cookware as Din made breakfast outside of his tent. They were only thirty minutes from the nearest town, but the hotel hadn't been open at two in the morning. They'd resorted to camping instead.

Nthanda seemed to be of a more optimistic mindset, because he scrambled out of his makeshift crib with a tumble onto the ground before gently slapping Kanda's shoulder. The swordsman peeked out from under the pillow to glare at the baby as Nthanda seemed to reprimand him in garbled speech about something. Kanda half-seriously shoved the baby over with a single hand, and Nthanda whined indignantly at the treatment. Kanda finally hauled himself out of the mess of bed sheets he called his bedroll, and he began to pack for the day.

Nthanda 'helped', shoving random, small items clumsily into the pack, and Kanda watched, nearly amused, as the baby quickly crawled this way and that, fetching things. Nthanda was much, much more responsive now than he'd been nearly two months before. The once-forlorn child was more grumpy and annoyed than anything else, a personality trait that made Kanda wonder if he was rubbing off on the tyke.

He finally picked Nthanda up and took him outside of the tent, finishing off his morning routine by breaking down the tent while Nthanda played in the dirt. Din, who was always up early, had already broken down his tent and things before cooking. Ellis had been the second one up, if only so she could annoy Kanda with her off-key singing right when he woke up. Vanya was almost always the last to wake up, preferring to sleep in after she'd spent all night painting spell tags, whetting her knives to razor-sharpness, and pinning more exotic bugs to her various corkboards.

Din looked up at Kanda with his usual, luminescent smile. He held up a pot with one, gloved hand, and he stated, "Got soup. T'ink Nthanda ken eat it?" Kanda looked in the pot critically, noting with disgust that it had salted pork in it. He _hated _salted pork. Still, food was better than an empty stomach.

"Take the pork out of it, and he'll be fine," Kanda said.

Breakfast was eaten without much occasion, only interrupted by the waking of a certain CROW member. Kanda shared a look with her, and her visage immediately went from neutral to a dark frown. Afterwards, they didn't even say a word in the other's direction, both of them clearly not happy with the presence of the other person. Nthanda crawled back and forth between them, playing with various things in a rather serious manner, and that was the only time either of them managed to cast a glance in the other's general vicinity. Din and Ellis noted the dark aura that seemed to hang between the two, but neither said anything.

Pretty soon, they were all up and walking towards the town, the sun already a quarter of the way through its daily journey towards the west. It was steadily getting hotter, and the general mood was growing more and more bitter - at least, between the two warriors.

"Somet'in' ain't right 'bout dem two, Ellis. They ain't bin sayin' nasty t'ings to each odher, ain't sayin' a word, not even pushin' or shovin'. They _real _mad right now," Din sighed to himself as he hefted his pack higher on his back. He could see the heat wafting off the road, almost as well as he could see the negativity radiating off of both Kanda and Vanya. The two were walking side by side, but their usual banter and bickering was absent, replaced by a silence that seemed so much worse.

"Wait, were they like this yesterday?" Ellis asked quietly. Din shrugged.

"Not as I 'member dem bein'. I t'ink I would, 'sidering Mistuh Kanda's near meltin' the road with his eyes," Din commented, and Ellis suddenly started giggling.

"Oh, then I know _just _what's the matter with them both," Ellis said, her eyes twinkling madly in a way that worried Din considerably. Ellis only ever had that look when she had some juicy tidbit to talk about. And this looked so juicy, it was practically dripping. She motioned him closer, and she began to explain in low tones about the things that had transpired the previous day. Din's eyes widened, flitting between the two.

"Are you sure -?"

"Oh, of course I'm sure! My instinct is never wrong. And besides, this is normal for two capably fit young adults as themselves. This is obviously some sort of lovers' quarrel!" Din looked skeptical, but he shrugged never the less. Once Ellis had an idea in mind...

"Maybe we should split them up before we get into the town? Talk to them a bit? After all, they are young. They're confused," Ellis suggested. She'd never really worried much about the predator-like behavior the two had showcased around each other, but this was much more human, and, so she postulated, romantic in nature.

"I dunno, Mum, they look a bit... unstable," Din sighed, but Ellis was already marching her way up to them, obviously intent on fixing this.

Kanda tramped across the dusty road into the town with a weary sigh, finally glad to be somewhere civilized with running water. The swordsman was not the epitome of pampered, but certain amenities were nice to have, one of them being plumbing. Nthanda squirmed in his arms, tired of being carted around. He was so much more active these days, and Kanda hardly had the ability to keep up with him, along with keeping an eye out for Akuma. The kid's teleportation ability definitely wasn't helping, because he'd just _poof _at random moments of the day. The older Nthanda got, the more frequent his disappearances became. Kanda wouldn't admit it, but it worried him what he'd do when the kid started _walking. _If his instinct was right, though, he had the feeling that Nthanda would start running before he started walking.

It took him a moment to realize that Ellis was hot on his heels, but once he knew that she was coming, he immediately felt his mood drop lower. She was bad news. _She _tended to exacerbate his gut instincts to smash something. Her knowledge of child-rearing was impeccable, but other than that Kanda tended to view her as a nuisance. Of course, she had her moments, but today...

"What do _you _want?" Kanda grumbled. The dirt road slowly turned to cobblestones, and it was obvious they were coming into the dusty town. It was a little way-place, really just somewhere to stop for a night. Luckily, there was a little market just on the outskirts. They were running out of supplies as it was. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Din and Vanya head toward a meat stand, no doubt for tonight's dinner.

"Oh, nothing," Ellis said innocently, which immediately tipped Kanda off to just how much word diarrhea she was about to spew. She was going to come up with something outrageous, he knew it. He set Nthanda down, being sure to leave him on a relatively clean patch of grass rather than the dirty, fluid strewn ground.

"I don't want to hear it," Kanda stated simply. Ellis seemed taken aback by this statement.

"What?! What you do you mean, 'don't want to hear it'? What I've got to say is very important!" Ellis indignantly challenged. Kanda scoffed, crossing his arms. He glowered at the passing shoppers and vendors, some of whom glared back. The air seemed to shimmer with the mounting heat, and Kanda once again wondered why he'd decided to pick up this mission in the first place. He should've figured it was bad luck from the start. _It'll be easy, _he said. _You'll be back in a few days, _he said. This thought seemed to push Kanda further into his cloud of growing pessimism.

"Fine. You won't shut your mouth anyways, so spit it out," Kanda grumbled, waiting for Vanya and Din to hurry it up. It was obvious that the two were spending an _inordinately long time _on picking a cut of pork, so whatever Ellis was about to say, Din was rattling off as well.

"Well! I was _going _to tell you, my dear, that you and Vanya shouldn't be confused about your feelings. I don't understand what transpired between the two of you, but I do know that when a man and a woman love each other very much and become heated, that sometimes things happen, and that's nothing to be ashamed of -"

Wait... what? This wasn't what he'd had in mind -

"- and you should talk these sorts of things through, you know. It's not any use to get mad at each other. After all, it doesn't mean anything, it's just a fling. A physical altercation, you understand? Of course, I'd expected better considering you're working together. So you both should kiss and make up, and get on so that we can travel in, at _least, _some modicum of normalcy without you two giving that _brooding _silence to each other -"

What was she getting at?! Where did this all come from!?

"- I mean, I would think you'd be in a much _better _mood than usual, not worse. It must've been terrible, if that was the case. Then again, you were in the woods and hot and dirty, but some people like that sort of thing -"

Kanda shook his head, his brain feeling like it'd explode any minute.

"Stop stop _stop. _What, exactly, are you trying to tell me, because you're not making _any_ sense," Kanda ground out between pressed teeth. He didn't have the patience for this sort of nonsense! Ellis seemed rather surprised herself.

"I do believe that we are not on the same page, so to speak," Ellis stated, straightening sheepishly. Kanda gripped his sword hilt in a death grip, his temple-vein coming dangerously close to bursting from his growing blood pressure.

"No, you don't say?" Kanda stated sarcastically in his most vehement voice. Ellis seemed to ruffle at this statement.

"I was only trying to help! After all, seeing how you both were yesterday - "

"Yesterday!"

"Yes, yesterday. I am more than highly aware of the circumstances. There really wasn't much to conclude from it," Ellis told him imperiously, feeling quite superior, as if she'd solved some great mystery and was using it to her best advantage. Kanda thought back to the former day, trying to remember - Ah! That little... problem. Kanda glowered at Ellis.

"You're joking. It _wasn't what it looked like,_" Kanda spat. He should've figured someone had seen that. After all, what with Vanya being difficult and all the hubbub going on and clothes flying everywhere, it was foolish of him to have thought that nobody would notice. He should've just explained outright. He rubbed the bridge of his nose, trying to beat back a headache that seemed to be squeezing his brain down his spinal column.

"Of course, of course," Ellis demurely acquiesced, deciding that sooner or later he'd have to own up to it. Kanda decided he'd had enough, and he went to pick up the kid so he could go and look for the hotel. They were wasting time. He bent down to pick Nthanda up off the ground -

- except there was no baby to pick up. Kanda stared for a moment at the spot Nthanda had originally occupied, this lack of child not quite registering. Ellis caught on quite a bit quicker.

"Oh dear," she breathed. Kanda felt panic suddenly invade his brain as he looked around the busy market, frantically trying to catch a glimpse of a dark-skinned baby crawling around.

He was gone.

* * *

><p>Nthanda crawled faster after a man in a bowler hat and a cane. The babe was quite adamant to catch up to him - it seemed more instinct than actual thought. Most people didn't realize just how intelligent Nthanda happened to be. Despite his late bodily development, Nthanda was incredibly intelligent, almost adult in his thought processes. He still had to get used to the fact that he couldn't truly speak yet (no teeth and no muscle control), though he had to admit that the use of a diaper was particularly liberating. He sincerely wished he'd never have to go back to potty training.<p>

But to the task at hand! That man in the bowler hat with the cane was a danger to the general populace! The chanting voices that only Nthanda could hear obviously thought so, speaking of the dead walking and the demons inhabiting human skin. Nthanda had heard them all his life, and through them he'd been given the gift of several lives lived already. However, his mind was his own, and he could do as he wished. And a simple touch was all that he needed to turn _that _thing walking around like a human into dust.

As if God himself were trying to impede his progress (and Nthanda was very familiar with God's work - Kanda was proof of that), a dog came up to the baby at _exactly _the wrong time, just as Nthanda was able to grab at the man's pant leg. Nthanda could only crawl so fast, and luckily that man was old! The dog sniffed Nthanda as the baby babbled irately at the canine, and the big dog panted in the baby's face. Nthanda pouted (an action he picked up from Ellis - such an interesting facial expression, one he'd never encountered in his former, loaned memories!) as dog breath wafted over his face. Oh, fiddlesticks!

The man suddenly turned around to see the commotion, only seeing a small child and a dog. The street was fairly empty, seeing as it was market day, and the man abruptly took on a harsh cast to his face. His wrinkled face morphed into a smile as the baby tried to shove the dog away. He started to chuckle, eyeing the circle in the middle of the child's chest. He knew full well what this baby was - an Exorcist, sworn enemy of all who wield Dark Matter and served the Earl. To find something so powerful yet so defenseless was tantalizing at the least.

And then, as if to subvert the attempts of murder on both parties, the dog picked the baby up by the diaper, much to the baby's displeasure, and ran off with him. The man stood there, staring at the space the baby had occupied much like the baby's former caretaker, with a look of perplexity before the man cursed and hobbled as fast as he could after the speeding dog and the baby.

* * *

><p>"You <em>LOST HIM?!<em>" Vanya's voice reached a range of decibels Kanda did not think possible for the human voice to achieve. His eyelid twitched, and he rubbed underneath his eye as he tried to tamp down his ire and irrational panic.

"_This _old biddy distracted me!" Kanda shouted back, pointing at Ellis. The old lady ruffled and 'harrumph'ed in an offended manner, though she did look like she partly blamed herself for the baby's disappearance.

"It does not matter. YOU lost HIM. I ken not _belief _you! I zought some clodhead like you vould hef learned yoor lesson by now!" Vanya shrieked. They were drawing a veritable crowd of people. Din was phoning the local authorities to be on the lookout for a young child, about a year old, with a gold circle in his chest.

"_It doesn't matter any more. _Get out there and find him, instead of standing here and screaming at me!" Kanda rebutted, and Vanya glared at him darkly. The two were already on rocky ground as it was, and this current crisis was not helping. They went looking towards opposite sides of the market.

"Incompetent buffoon," Vanya grumbled under her breath as she went.

"Stupid, naggy whelp," Kanda spat, just loud enough for her to hear.

"At least I hef enough brain to keep an eye on a _baby,_" Vanya muttered as Kanda darkly retorted, "Ignorant CROW, can't even do anything besides _blame _someone and complain."

"Exorcist vith his head in ze clouds, pfeh!"

"_I'm _the one who takes care of him, for the love of God, and I can't even screw up _one time._"

And, as matters would have it, as they continued to spit and curse the other, they managed to bump into each other at the same place they'd started with Ellis worriedly standing next Din and the phone.

"HEY! Watch where you're going, piss-for-brains!" Kanda irately stated. Vanya stood toe to toe with him, and she said in that deadly calm way only an angry woman could manage, "Maybe if someone hed been _v__atching vere dey vere going _you vouldn't hef hit me." The two of them glared at each other for a solid thirty seconds before Ellis couldn't take it anymore.

She suddenly shoved the two away from each other, profusely exhorting, "E-_nough _of this nonsense! I will not stand for you two antagonizing each other while this child is in danger! As you are both his caretakers and substitute parents, you should be _helping _each other look for him, not biting each other's throats!"

The two of them continued to glare at each other, but they were more subdued than they had been a few minutes ago as they realized how futile their bickering happened to be.

Din walked up to the three, and he said, "Deh police be lookin' for him now." It seemed to settle on them, finally, that they could've very well lost him.

"Where could he have gone," Ellis sighed to herself, notes of worry causing her voice to tremulously waver up and down. Kanda looked down morosely.

"I have no idea," he stated. "I'm going to go look. I'll take the first five streets. Vanya, take the next five." Vanya looked slightly put-out by the sudden order, but she didn't object as Din had thought she would.

"I'll tek deh north streets abohve you, Mistuh Kanda," Din volunteered. Ellis nodded.

"If that's the case, I'll take the north with you, if you'll allow an old biddy," Ellis asked graciously, and Din nodded before the two headed off. Kanda wasted no time walking towards the first five streets, hoping he'd catch a glimpse of the toddler. He hated to ask other people if they'd seen him. He was the best at communicating his thoughts politely.

As he walked, he only had his thoughts for company. Vanya had left for the prescribed five streets already. When Kanda was finally alone, the full force of his separation from the tyke smacked him in the head like a barreling sledge hammer. Actual worry filled him as he thought of something so young somewhere out there, vulnerable to every sort of danger. Crushed, run over, bitten by dogs, carted off by some one else, killed by an Akuma - all of them were so _so _possible. Kanda felt a shuddering within him.

No. The kid wasn't going to die. He'd already shown himself tough, even at such a tender, tender age. He wouldn't give up so easy, but that did nothing to abate the biting hunger of panic. He wanted to tear his hair out and scream. He was so utterly helpless, unable to do anything but look. It welled up in him, that dangerous scream that threatened to burst from his throat. There was a spiked ball clogging his windpipe, almost seeming to make it impossible to breathe. He'd never felt this way before -

but yes he had. Once upon a time, he had felt like this. Felt so helpless, felt so lonely, felt so distraught and terrified. But those had been different circumstances, so long ago, totally unrelated to the events of now, and yet he couldn't help but seem to tie the two together. The panic crescendo'd within, but he refused to let it control him. So he kept patrolling the streets, hoping for a glimpse, wondering just where, oh _where _did that baby go?

* * *

><p>Nthanda fussily began verbally abusing the dog the minute the large canine had dropped him in the middle of a sidewalk. The baby tried to stand up shakily, but he only ended up falling down on his behind. He'd already crapped once, and he felt very uncomfortable. The baby suddenly felt a spike of discouragement as he noticed how far away he was from where he'd originally started. He'd been aware that when he'd crawled after the man with the bowler hat he could make his way back to the market easily. Grumpily, he soon began to realize that getting back to Kanda and the others was going to be a hassle. This dog had taken him half across the world!<p>

However, Nthanda didn't have much time to think on this. The baby heard growling, and Nthanda turned as well as he could to find the source of the noise. The baby froze for a moment as he saw several large dogs begin circling around them. For several minutes, they assessed the baby and their compatriot, taking what Nthanda thought was a unnecessary amount of time sniffing each other and his courier. The dog that had carried Nthanda to this sidewalk, which was more of an alley really, lowered his head demurely with a whine as the lead dog, a large mastiff with splotches of gray, approached Nthanda. The dog sniffed the baby experimentally, but Nthanda would have none of that.

He slapped the dog right on the nose with an indignant 'bah!'

The dog, not at all used to such abuse from something so small and insignificant as this babe, reared back in surprise before growling menacingly. The baby didn't seem all that perturbed. After all, Nthanda had seen Kanda fight things _much _bigger than this ball of fur, and Nthanda himself was cocky enough to believe that he himself could deal with such a nuisance if ever he found the need.

He soon _did _find that need, because the dog lunged at him with bared teeth, and the baby did the only thing that came to mind. He _transferred, _going to that place between places and space and time and light and life, retreated to the place he felt, oddly, the most at home. Of course, the babe knew he couldn't stay forever. Eventually he'd have to come out. The chanting was louder here, more defined and perhaps a little more helpful, but it wasn't the land of the living. It was the closest one could be from the land of the living without having died, after all. Nthanda would know.

So, he reappeared right above the dog who'd brought him to this pack, and the dog yelped very suddenly at the new passenger he'd so rudely acquired. Nthanda slapped the dog's hind in with a clumsy hand, trying to balance unsteadily on the dog's back as he suddenly took off -

-and right into the path of Nthanda's former prey. Aha! Here he was, that most brutal of enemies! That old man had taken a while to get here, of course, but there was no worrying over that now. This was his moment to finally utilize his abilities!

And the old man, obviously an Akuma, was more than happy to oblige the baby, who seemed like an infant knight atop a large, ridge-backed steed of a canine. He highly doubted he'd even have to transform into his true form with the babe as he was. After all, he was so tiny and minuscule. What sort of threat could something so small pose to an Akuma?

The two seemed to square, each eagerly awaiting the first shot from the other, when the dog pack suddenly burst around the corner. They skidded to a halt roughly behind their quarry, and they, too, regarded the situation. All three parties were ready to go at each other, raring for blood and battle.

Except for the steed, who'd gotten absolutely no say in the matter. The poor Rhodesian ridge-back had hoped that bringing the baby would allow the leader of his pack some sort of sympathy, because the dog would've loved to keep the tyke as a pet, if not a snack. Of course, as luck would have it, the babe turned out to make _him _the pet, rather than the other way around, and now he was paying for his ill-informed decision.

So, he did the sort of thing that dogs in his situation do. He continued his previous action and began running away with the baby still bouncing, rather in a highly irritated fashion, as the dogs lunged and the Akuma bounded.

* * *

><p>"Did you hear that?" Ellis asked hesitantly. She could swear she'd heard gunshots, but that didn't seem right. After all, this seemed to be a respectable town, but then again, all towns have their spots of trouble. Din shrugged as stopped yet another woman on her way, asking if he'd seen a baby, about yea tall, really dark-skinned, had a peculiar gold circle in the middle of his chest...<p>

Out of the corner of her eye, Ellis could also see Vanya wandering around, and Ellis thought that awfully strange. After all, Kanda had assigned her the five streets to the left of his own search area, and this was the northern part of the town. She began to walk towards Ellis's portion of street, and Ellis decided to see what she could learn from the Russian CROW member.

"Find him yet?" she asked. Vanya huffed irately.

"Obfiously not. I hev no beby in mine arms, no? Zen I do not hev ze beby," Vanya grumbled, looking uncharacteristically dark. It was a sharp contrast from her usual neutral expression. She was very upset, though she wouldn't dare admit it. Ellis knew better than most how distressing this must be. Why, her husband had lost their niece once, and that had been quite harrowing. She could only imagine how Vanya and Kanda must feel, the both of them so young and inexperienced with young children (though Vanya seemed much more well-versed than Kanda).

"Well, I meant no offense. What are you doing here, per se?" Ellis asked, straightening her glasses. Vanya bit her lip.

"Some children... told me zat zey saw a dog run dis vay wit' a babe on its back. I hed vanted to know if zis vas true," Vanya confessed, obviously looking skeptical now. Ellis nodded sagely. That did sound peculiar, and it was clear they were getting a mite bit desperate. After all, Nthanda had been missing for all of thirty minutes by now. They were bound to get frantic.

"Well, I've seen nothing of the kind. Though equally implausible is the fact that I didn't catch you and your fellow warrior -"

"It vas _not vat it looked like._"

"Funny, he said exactly the same thing."

Vanya turned her head away, spluttering in a wounded fashion at the rebuttal of her reply. Ellis' eye gleamed as she kept an eye out for any more strange happenings as her woman's intuition seemed to sing at this new bit of information about a dog running with a baby on its back. Vanya, of course, looked warily on the older woman as Ellis seemed to be devising a rather fearsome sentence.

"Would you... mind sharing what happened?" Ellis asked innocently. Vanya bit her lip, looking at the ground. It was... _embarrassing. _After all, they were two grown fighters. They shouldn't have been blindsided by something so primal and base. Before they'd known it, it had happened, and every time they tried to fix the problem, it seemed to get worse. It was like they were two novices again, clumsy and untrained for the situation they'd been thrown into.

"Well -"

"ELLIS, THERE HE IS!" Din shouted, running past the old woman. Vanya was after him in a split second, following, not to Ellis's surprise, a dog carrying a baby on its back away from -

"OH DEAR!" Ellis shrieked as an Akuma suddenly bowled her over in his pursuit of the dog. Luckily, she only received a bruised tailbone for her troubles, but it had greatly frightened her at that moment. However, her fear turned quickly into exasperation as she picked herself up and gave chase after the running trio quickly gaining on the dog and his passenger. She wasn't missing out on this!

* * *

><p>Kanda ran on the rooftops of the houses, careful about stepping on the rough corrugated tin. He knew better than to put his whole weight on the rotten metal, and he tended to stick to the tiled houses. As he ran, he thought of Nthanda and what he looked like, how the kid moved, hoping to get an idea of where exactly he'd gone. However, thinking of the kid was near painful, seeing as all he could think about were those things he'd have missed if the kid turned up dead or, worse, not at all. The kid had personality, and Kanda didn't like to admit that he wanted to see how Nthanda would turn out in later years, what sort of person he'd be.<p>

He wanted to be there. He'd _never _been there for anyone else. Lavi was the extent of his friends, and even then, 'friend' was a very, very loose term to use towards the redhead, who had been the embodiment of detachment. Kanda had missed Lenalee growing up - he'd been too busy on missions to really contribute too much to her growth, though he did feel a modicum of warmth knowing that, after her idiot of a brother Komui, he was the person she ran to whenever things got rough. Don't even get him _started _on Allen. Ugh! That idealist! He sickened him. But... at the same time, Allen had grown, too, and so much in the time that Kanda had left.

For a minute, he actually thought what it might be like if he were an active participant in Nthanda's life. And in that moment... he thought maybe, it wouldn't be so bad.

And then he remembered moments like _this, _of gut-wrenching worry over something (or, rather, some_one_) so small. Maybe... maybe not.

"KANDA!" His head whipped around to find the voice calling for him, and there she was. His mood immediately darkened at the sight of Vanya. Ugh - and he felt _guilty _too. Like he should actually _apologize. _Which, of course, was wrong - he hadn't done anything! It was all her fault for getting herself into that mess!

However, after getting his mind off of _that _encounter, he noticed that Vanya was chasing after a dog that was... wait, was that _Nthanda riding the dog? _Kanda almost rubbed his eyes to make sure that he wasn't seeing things, but of course doing that was so childishly stupid.

"I SEE THEM!" Kanda bellowed back, hopping down to the street. He was several yards ahead of the dog and Nthanda, and he'd have to pick up both if he wanted to get Nthanda at all. Vanya was slowly catching on the Akuma, and he decided he'd let her take care of that particular battle. She seemed to understand this silent plan, as she began to fling binding tags, slowing down the Akuma as Kanda timed his capture. Finally! The nightmare was over. He reached out for the dog and the kid -

And then Nthanda and the dog flew forwards, a sharp explosion from a missile launched by the frantic Akuma sending them flying forwards with wide-eyes. Kanda watched in horror as Nthanda gripped the dog's fur and suddenly disappeared, teleporting on instinct in order to avoid the fire ball.

And Kanda, of course, was too close. He was _always _too close. It figured.

The Akuma, more than willing to cash in his chips when he knew that the fight was _not _in his favor, turned tail the minute that Exorcist crawled out of the rubble with a look like Hades on his face and a sword that looked like molten anger in his hand.

Vanya tried to bind the Akuma just as it left, but it managed to leap the rooftops. Kanda let loose a very ardent lotus strike, completely decimating someone's roof, but the Akuma had already gone. Kanda hadn't truly expected it to reach the Akuma; he was just angry and wanted to destroy something.

Today was _not _his day.

Vanya caught up with the irate Exorcist, and she said calmly, "You go after Nthanda. I'll take the Akuma."

Surprised by her sudden turn of mood towards him, Kanda quirked an eyebrow. The unspoken question hung there, Kanda unwilling to commit to any sort of truce with the CROW. Vanya, however, was a little more flexible, and the language of silence was one in which she was well versed. Rolling her eyes, she answered his silent inquiry.

"I vill be fine by myself. I ken ashoor you I vill keep it contained until you ken finish it off," Vanya stated, lifting her head high, exposing her neck. Ellis, still trying to catch up, couldn't help but notice the predatorial connotations of such a vulnerable position, the equivalent of a dog rolling on its back in a sign of supplication. Humans were not so far separated from the animals after all.

Kanda sniffed derisively, but he accepted her proposal. In a whirl of dust, he was suddenly gone, fleet footed and searching for his missing charge. Vanya stood there, staring at the spot he'd vacated while Ellis huffed and puffed, finally coming to bear on the CROW.

"What was that about?" she asked, gasping for breath. A lady should _not _run in a full dress and hose! It was unbecoming! Now her hair was beginning to fly out of its bun, and she was beginning to put runs in her hose. Still, it was nothing a good primp and some clear nail varnish couldn't fix. In Ellis's opinion, there were very things that couldn't be solved with a bit of clear nail varnish...

"Nothing." Ellis looked sidelong at the quiet CROW, and she coughed politely.

"Right before this, uh, development, you were saying something about, uh..."

Vanya rubbed the bridge of her nose as she took a deep breath.

"It vas... a very hot day... so I vanted to take a bath..."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **So the next installment of Afrikaan Voices is here! It's amazing what will pop up in your mind while you're just sitting there. So, without further ado, there it is! And, luckily, I had to split it into two, so the second half of this chapter should be heading in soon on its heels, preferably in a week's time.

A big big thanks to karina001 and Lotus seed for their fantabulous reviews. I love how indepth you two get whenever you're commenting on the chapter as a whole - it gives me warm fuzzies, and I like having my questions answered (as well as input of your own).

My mighty Team Subscribe has grown by a magnitude of... one! Welcome, fading ink! Every single person counts!

And on Team Favorite (who basically run as my little ad campaign - after all, what else are the story favorites for! Except... well, keeping track of the stories you like to read over and over... which is its intended purpose), I have quite a few new favoriteers: a big warm welcome to Annie Matsukaze, karina0001 (better late than never!), fading ink, LatheJoiye, Derrian, and nekozuki666.

Remember, feel free to send me PMs for questions, suggestions, pointers, etc. Don't be shy - I like feedback, even if its negative, and I promise that I don't bite.

Now, for your favorite part: los preguntas discursos! (ooooh, that time, they weren't italicized - it's slipping into the vernacular): _What do you make of Kanda's 'bad day' intuition? What sort of emotions are invoked upon reading this chapter? Is the switch between Nthanda's point of view and the rest of the gang's jarring or enjoyable? Is Nthanda's point of view interesting to read? What do you make of this chanting that Nthanda hears as well as his already-present world knowledge? How do you like the dog? What, exactly, can you imagine has put Kanda and Vanya in such a bad mood towards each other? Has Ellis been Flanderized (if you don't understand the term, go to and look it up - it's an enjoyable site that will ruin your life)? What characters do you wish to see more of? Any other thoughts on this chapter? _

Well, that's all folks! God bless, and happy reading!


	12. Head Over Heels

Nthanda sat exhausted on the dog's back, tuckered out from having to go between spaces so many times in one day. He was gradually training himself to do it more and more often. From what he could tell, his reach was pretty far. However, he _was _seeing this all from a baby's perspective. A few feet were practically miles.

The dog, surprisingly, did not seemed at all perturbed about having gone between places. In fact, the dog seemed just about downright happy. His tail wagged, and he panted with what looked like quite a big grin on his face. Nthanda babbled at the dog, and as if he understood, the dog stopped.

Nthanda carefully clambered off of his impromptu steed, patting the dog's foreleg rather imperiously. Of course, Nthanda lost his balance, _again, _and fell against the dog, who was more than willing to be used as a stand.

"Oh... oh my, how _adorable!" _a woman's voice said. Nthanda's eyes widened in reaction as a young woman, dressed in the latest of fashions and escorted by three different servants, all of who were laden with bags and cases, reached down to pick him up as if he were some wayward kitten. Nthanda, of course, did not appreciate being manhandled in the least. Kanda and Ellis were the extent of his allowances! After all Kanda was becoming a surrogate father, in some aspects, and Ellis was so soft and cushy that Nthanda honestly wouldn't have mind her carrying him all day. This woman, though, was all spindly and pokey, sort of stiff and almost plaster-like.

"Now what are you doing here, you little munchkin? And with a - ugh! Get, you mangy cur!" she ordered of the dog, and Nthanda took high offense to that. After all, only _he _was allowed to abuse the dog like that. He was a baby. He had the excuse of poor motor control and a lack of communication.

Nthanda pushed against the woman while whining and babbling, reaching for the dog, and the woman struggled to keep a grasp of the babe.

"Um... miss... perhaps you should, uh... put him back where you found him?" one of the heavily burdened servants suggested. The woman, a redhead and therefore _obviously _fiery by nature, stamped her foot at him.

"Nonsense! I'm taking him home with me. Look at his widdle toes, and dat widdle nose, and those widdle teef, and..." Nthanda swore that if the woman used the word 'widdle' again in his presence, he was going to throw up on her, and he knew he could probably do it on command. Thank the gods that Kanda didn't resort to baby talk. Ellis indulged now and again, but at least she tried to keep it intelligent and two-sided.

Meanwhile, the dog sulked off, obviously not wanted, but he perked up upon seeing the two-leg who he'd been chasing, the dark-haired one with the long, black tail in the wrong place. The dog trotted up next to him happily, recognizing the baby's scent on him. He very much liked this particular two-leg - from what the baby two-leg had shown him (and show him he did - and in the most disorienting, interesting fashion that the dog had ever experienced), this two-leg was strong, the leader of his pack, and treated his subordinates fairly well. At the least, he didn't bite anybody. That was more than the dog could say for his _last _pack leader.

And in fact, the two-leg did not even notice that he was being followed by this certain mutt. He was too busy staring at the woman who was cuddling his kid, speaking in that _stupid _high-pitched baby voice, and obviously not getting the memo that Nthanda _did not like it. _

"Hey. You wanna give me back my kid?" Kanda asked gruffly, standing in front of her with crossed arms. Her three servants hastily backed up a few steps, but the redhead didn't even bother to look at him.

"What sort of person would even _dare _to leave a child with a big dog such as that, and in the middle of a street no less! That is unacceptable, and I'm taking him home with me, and he shall be my little cuddle-wumpkins where I can dress him in nice clothes, and feed him good food, and -" Kanda cut her off there by suddenly taking the baby. Nthanda almost seemed happy as he took his customary spot standing against Kanda's arm while winding a pudgy hand in his hair. Kanda himself felt a spur of relief, the familiar feeling of his hair being pulled out of its tie a welcome worry to the former panic he'd been experiencing for the past hour or two.

"Trust me, he'll rip up the clothes and spit out the food. I would know," Kanda stated as he was about to walk away. However, the woman, at last, had seen his face.

And it was as if she'd seen the visage of Adonis staring back at her. Those eyes... that nose... that hair! Oh, Perfection had walked into her midst, and she had not even known it! So distracted was she by that beautiful child, that she had not even begun to look at his even more beautiful father! Entranced, she followed him, sidling up to him in a flounce of skirts and bodice.

"Well, I would hate for you to leave without introducing myself. I am... the Comtesse Lavinia of Chesterbury," she said in what she imagined was a husky, irresistibly rough voice.

To Kanda, it was like listening to cats attacking a chalkboard with steel-tipped claws. He didn't have time for this nonsense. After all, he had this dog following him, and Vanya to deal with, and the baby was probably hungry, and it wasn't even _noon _yet...

"Whatever," he stated, glowering as he trotted faster to get away. However, Lavinia appeared relentless, as was her tireless squad of servants. They followed at the exact step she took, each looking more and more haggard the farther they went on.

"You won't even grace me with a name, my princ- er, my poor father? Does this babe not even have a mother's warmth? Perhaps I could fill it. Those nights must be... _lonely,_" Lavinia purred. Kanda, at this point, was sincerely thinking about tripping her, and letting the chips fall where they may.

"Not really. I have three other housemates," Kanda stated, seeming to exude a fine layer of 'back off'. Lavinia deflated slightly at the mention of other people who may or may not be competing with her affections.

"Oh. Is that so? Surely you have room?" She batted her eyelashes as she trotted to keep up with Kanda's long stride. The dog bounded next to him, happy for a challenge.

"I have three _too many _housemates," Kanda grumbled, finally stopping to stare at the woman. She scrambled to stop, her three servants piling up behind her in a humorous pile of limbs and bags. Kanda gave them all rather nasty looks before turning around to walk away -

The dog suddenly began to bark in a worried tone, whining and yelping in fear. Kanda immediately unsheathed his sword, Nthanda automatically recognizing the prelude to battle and hanging on for dear life. The dog ran behind Kanda while Lavinia screamed in the most high-pitched, _annoying _shriek she could manage.

The Akuma slobbered in the street. It stalked back and forth, watching Kanda with wide open eyes. Too soon it recognized the swordsman, and the Akuma froze. It had hoped that, perhaps, just maybe, the baby might be alone again. No luck, obviously.

And, for the second time that day, the Akuma turned tail. Several sharp bits of metal flew towards it, missing it by hairs. Spell tags fluttered, and Kanda readied himself for the maneuver he knew was coming. Lavinia, amazingly enough, took another breath and continued screaming. Her stolid servants had dropped their packages and cowered behind her ample skirts. Suddenly, Vanya vaulted over a building, and Kanda swept his sword outwards in an attempt to catch it at the waist while Vanya herded it into position.

However, the Akuma was surprisingly fast. It suddenly snatched Vanya with a hidden tendril underneath its belly, and the CROW found herself unexpectedly turned from hunter to prey. To add insult to injury, the Akuma took Lavinia as well. Kanda honestly wondered for all of a moment if he should leave the both of them, but that part of him that was still rose-tinted knew he would do no such thing.

**_You've got more in you than to do that._ **

The voice was quiet, tiny, and barely there, but nevertheless it was present, and it distracted Kanda for the crucial second he should've used to hack the creature to pieces. However, it barreled around a corner, bypassing all of Lavinia's frightened servants and knocking Ellis down for the second time.

"Oh... BOTHER!" Ellis shouted, throwing her hands up in frustration. Kanda smirked at the old lady's ire towards the Akuma. That biddy was tougher than fruit cake after Christmas. Nthanda, however, tugged on his hair, bringing him back to the matter at hand with a very serious babbling-to. Kanda rolled his eyes, already knowing what Nthanda was trying to tell him. Vanya was one of his favorite playmates. She was one of the few willing to do patty-cake for extended periods of time. Nthanda _loved _patty-cake.

"Fine. You owe me when you're older," Kanda grumbled, stowing the baby into his customary sash. He was almost too big by now, and Kanda wondered for a minute what he was going to do when Nthanda got too big to carry... A dog barked, and Kanda looked at the Rhodesian that had been trailing him for the past half an hour. The dog gave a goofy grin, circling the samurai before nosing a line of blood. It seemed Kanda _had _nicked the Akuma. Unfortunately, it must've been shallow considering the blood trail soon stopped a few feet around the corner.

However, the dog seemed to know exactly where he was going. He looked up at Kanda expectantly, wagging his tail enthusiastically. Kanda slouched in disbelief. This dog... was seriously going to track an Akuma for him? Without any sort of treats or training? Well, not to look a gift horse in the mouth, Kanda waved his hands at the dog, and the ridge-back took off at a loping run. Kanda went after him as fast as his feet could keep up.

Meanwhile, Ellis, who'd finally managed to get up, could only watch as Kanda started to run off. Din himself had thought it better to stay on the rooftops in order to watch from above and direct from there. She stamped her foot.

"BOLLOCKS! I miss _everything!_" she complained.

* * *

><p>"Zis is... demeaning," Vanya lamented to herself, hanging limply from the Akuma's grip. She was surprised it hadn't tried to eat her yet, considering it had a mouth full of plate-like teeth that it enjoyed gnashing together. It was still running away, and it was getting fairly close to the outskirts of town. Vanya had tried to free herself, but she didn't think she had the necessary spells to free herself from the beast without also injuring the other passenger and victim.<p>

Lavinia, much to Vanya's distaste, was still screaming herself hoarse, bemoaning the fact that her dress was ripped, that she was going to die, and that her corpse was going to look like a homeless destitute. She _had _tried to curse the monster half way to the ends of the Earth, so Vanya had to hand her some credit to her audacity. She was honestly wondering if the woman was trying to annoy the creature so much that it would much rather drop her and be done than carry her around.

The Akuma suddenly stopped at the edge of town, screams echoing as people raced to get away from the giant demon-fox-octopus hybrid made of metal and gears. It licked its chops as it lifted Vanya and Lavinia up in the air, ready to devour them now that they were relatively far from that pesky Exorcist. Vanya sighed as she readied herself for a single spell, hoping that she could inflict damage without harming Lavinia harm. As much of a nuisance as she had made herself, Lavinia didn't deserve to die, at the hands of an Akuma _or _via friendly fire (in a very literal sense) from a CROW spell. Besides, the mountain of paperwork her death would entail could potentially bury the small CROW member.

Just as she got a grip on a fire strip she'd painted the night before, a black blur cut through the tentacles wrapped around both Lavinia and Vanya. Both were left in the air for a moment, all three parties stunned as the two women began a downward journey from their respective perches in the air.

Kanda, who of course was the black blur, was met with a dilemma. Both women were falling, both were going to hit the ground at approximate the same time, and Kanda didn't have the ability to be in two places at once. Nthanda was not willing to give his input either.

And so, Kanda decided that Vanya could probably survive the twenty-foot-tall drop, while the poor Comtesse would have a much rougher time for it (and protest much louder). He raced for the noblewoman and neatly caught her in a single leap, wincing as he watched Vanya fall to the ground with a very definite _whump. _

The Comtesse, of course, was _very very _please to find herself in the arms of a handsome (if somewhat rude and hard-to-get) samurai. She wrapped her arms around his neck as she cooed, "My _heeeeroooo~._" Nthanda very suddenly popped out of his sash, seeing as he was being shoved by the woman and her jostling, and began to gurgle at her in irate tones, finishing up with a definite slap to her bust. The woman's jaw dropped as the baby gave a definitive nod, and to add to her misfortune Kanda dropped her in the interest of fighting the giant octopus-fox monster. She screamed raucously as Kanda blocked the monster's jaws, its tendrils whipping about. Kanda gritted his teeth as he pushed back, trying to keep away from those plate-like teeth.

Kanda hastily looked over at Vanya, hoping that she hadn't suffered any ill effects from her fall, though more in his own interest than hers. However, she was had already vacated her current spot, and Kanda felt a twinge of concern, but no more than a twinge.

Nthanda waved his hands at the Akuma, trying desperately to touch it, and Kanda side-stepped the monster in order to keep the baby out of its reach. A tentacle darted towards him, and he chopped the tip, though barely. This Akuma was stunningly fast, but that and its extra tentacles seemed to be the only special attributes it sported. Suddenly, Kanda felt something grip his ankle, and he cursed loudly as he was suddenly whipped into the air. Nthanda seemed to float out of his sash in slow motion, and Kanda desperately grasped at the child with both hands, for a moment _letting go _of his sword. Too soon he realized his mistake when he was abruptly jerked to the side, Nthanda still in his tenuous grasp. The child screamed in fear as Kanda tried to shield him in case the monster should attempt to slam him into the ground.

Ellis flashed past Kanda's field of vision, and he hastily yelled, "ELLIS! **CATCH!**"

With that, he threw Nthanda to her, the baby flailing in the air. Ellis, already winded, gave a very loud, unladylike expletive before catching the baby in a saving dive, narrowly avoiding Kanda as he was swung around when Din seemed to materialize and yank her away. Vanya crouched on the ground by them, looking a little worse-for-wear, though not unduly injured. Din and Vanya shared a look.

"You okay, miss? Need water?" Din asked politely, holding a water bottle. Vanya took the water bottle gratefully, swallowing great gulps of water.

"Oh, look at this mess! My favorite traveling dress, ruined!" Ellis breathlessly gasped as she tried to comfort the distraught Nthanda. A dog very suddenly sat at her feet, panting and grinning at her, and Ellis immediately began rubbing his head, as she was very much a dog sort of person. Vanya shook her head at the shenanigans of the old woman, stolidly ignoring the fact that her fellow comrade was being used as a rag doll.

"I em shoor you ken find anozher von," she sighed.

"What IS _that thing!?_"

All three looked over at Lavinia, who was still on her spot on the ground where Kanda had dropped her. She hastily scooted back, picking herself up and dusting off.

"Zat, dearest, is en Akuma," Vanya answered blankly as the three watched, quite avidly, as Kanda was twirled with quite some grace. It was sadly entertaining, in that terrible, horribly funny sort of way.

"Shouldn't you help him?" Lavinia asked haughtily, straightening herself out despite her hair being a mess and her dress beyond repair. She sincerely wished she could've at _least _gained a rip in the bodice - it appeared that this woman, who ever she was, happened to be her competition and it wouldn't hurt to have her attributes a little more... visible. How unfortunate this was not so.

Vanya _might _have answered with something quippy, but her proximity to the Akuma had given her quite the disadvantage (and Kanda, the advantage) of grasp. Kanda, on his _fifth _whip-around, suddenly grabbed her by the back of the shirt and yanked her along for good measure. She didn't even have to time to curse him.

The dog watched with avid curiosity, too intent on watching the waving to really comprehend the problem. Din and Ellis were too busy gossiping and staring at the two unfortunates currently battling their own manhandling. Lavinia was preoccupied with primping herself.

Which, obviously, left Nthanda to finally get the job done. It figured that you had to send a baby to do a warrior's job.

Meanwhile, Vanya and Kanda were having a... conversation.

"YOU IDIOT! VY DID YOU GRAB ME?!" Vanya shrieked indignantly, one of the few signs of emotions she was willing to display.

"BECAUSE YOU WEREN'T _PAYING ATTENTION, _THAT'S WHY! I'M BEING USED AS A CHEW TOY, AND YOU'RE STANDING THERE GOSSIPING -!"

"I VAS DRINKING VATER!"

"WHATEVER YOU WERE DOING, IT WASN'T HELPING ME!"

Kanda suddenly curled up around Vanya as he made a very abrupt acquaintance with the ground, and Vanya hung on like a burr as they were suddenly lifted off again. The two had managed to coordinate their movements while hanging on to each other so that they could subvert the movements of the tentacle currently playing with them. The Akuma suddenly snapped at Vanya's foot, and Kanda delivered a rather well aimed punch just as Vanya kicked it in the eye. It screeched as it hurled Kanda in the air, and Vanya removed a spell-tag she'd been saving. She threw it down, and there was a massive fireball as the tag ignited.

The Akuma, enraged and on fire, suddenly reared up and threw both Vanya and Kanda into the air, releasing the samurai. They both went wide-eyed as they realized that there was no longer anything stopping them from hitting the ground from nearly a hundred and fifty feet. There was a single moment where they both looked at each at the pinnacle of their climb, and Vanya could only say one thing.

"I blame you," she stated blankly.

Kanda frowned at this sentiment.

"Likewise," he retorted.

Their fall resumed, and Kanda was seized by an idea as they came down. He reached for Vanya's hand, but he couldn't pull her in. If he could just cushion their fall... maybe minimize impact, possibly save both their lives -

And, as if by the will of God, Nthanda was falling with them after a sharp _pop! _resounded, grasping onto Kanda's ponytail as he fell above them. Kanda's eyes widened as he realized what the baby was about to do.

"Grab me!" Kanda demanded, holding his hand out to Vanya. Frantically, she grabbed him, and there was a sudden moment of pure, silent nothing.

It was just as he remembered it. This dark nothingness full of an absolute absence of sense, no smell, no temperature, no feel, nothing besides the sensation of Vanya's dry skin clamped around his own hand. Images flashed past them as they continued falling, but in what direction they didn't know. Images did flash past them in all directions, odd spurts of events like automobiles of some sort, people talking into devices next to their ears, and giant animals with scaly skin that looked vaguely like lizards. Beautiful buildings, wonderful works of art, and horrendous replays of wars from another time seemed to fly away from them. Light was absent, but so was dark, and it was as if they were being compressed, pushed, shoved, crammed into this strange space and -

- he could hear chanting, this low, rhythmic hum of voices that were speaking in a language he couldn't understand. They were so quiet, it was almost inaudible, but it was there. Those voices held an ancient wisdom, but if he could just understand it -

_POP! _

Kanda and Vanya, along with their baby passenger, were crammed back into the world of the normal, and both received a well-loved hello from the ground. With a groan, the both of them curled up in pain, Kanda with a broken nose and Vanya with a near-bitten through tongue. They'd landed heavily on their faces and chests, not having enough time to put their hands in front of them to break their fall. Nthanda, however, was perfectly fine, seeing as Kanda's back had been a welcome substitute for the ground. For several days, Kanda would have a baby-butt shaped bruise in the middle of his back, and Nthanda would complain every time he was sat down.

The dog sniffed at Kanda, mostly due to the fact Nthanda was sitting on top of him, and Kanda shoved the dog rudely, causing it to yelp. It quickly took its place by Din, who'd as of late been feeding him beef jerky and had come to be a fast friend.

"Oh! Poor dear, look at you, you're nose is broken! Here let me fix that!" Lavinia gushed, jumping on the chance to induce some sort of Florence Nightingale effect on the object of her affection. However, Kanda would have none of that. The last thing he wanted was to have a woman swarm all over him because of something as trivial as a snapped proboscis.

"Woman, if you touch me, I will _personally _carve off _your_ nose," Kanda threatened angrily, lifting Nthanda off his back and standing in one smooth motion, neatly towering over the Comtesse. The Comtesse, not used to having her attentions so suddenly spurned, was taken aback, and Kanda used this chance to forge back into battle before anything _else _could possibly happen. Nose dripping blood, he went to retrieve his sword and finally put an end to the poor monster that was beating itself against the ground in an attempt to put out the unnatural flames bathing it.

The Comtesse, however, was not one to be so easily put off. If anything, her intentions to have this particularly feisty man doubled. It was obvious he needed a woman in his life to temper his, uh, temper! The poor soul was secretly yearning for a woman's touch, and he was merely in denial! That was why he was so vehemently against her - he was denying her because of the need he felt for her, a thing he could not possibly understand! For, after all, the Comtesse _was _devilishly beautiful, and what man could understand the _unmentionable desires _she invoked within them? Surely, it was the same for this fellow! She must redouble her efforts to win him!

And, of course, as the Comtesse was off in her own fantasy land, Din and Ellis had rushed to Vanya's aid while Kanda took care of the big, bad Akuma. They helped the poor woman stand as she wiped the blood from her mouth. She tried to speak, but it came out a garbled mess as she screeched in pain. Her tongue was cleanly cut almost in two, and it was apparent that stitches would be needed.

"Oh, my dear. We need to get you to a hospital, quickly," Ellis said seriously, grasping the woman by the arm. Vanya nodded, leaning heavily on the older woman as she suddenly went fuzzy-headed.

"I kin watch deh two over dere while you go. He'll b'fine, mum," Din insisted as Ellis glanced back at him uncertainly. She nodded tight-lipped, and she went off at a quick trot towards the doctor.

And, almost as soon as Din had said this, the Akuma landed at his feet in a burnt pile, completely cut through in perhaps fifteen different places. Kanda had not been kind to the creature. His facial expression did nothing to refute this claim. He gave it a vicious kick before giving a very triumphant, "Che."

Din stared at the pile of creature at his feet with wide eyes, looking up at Kanda incredulously.

"Ent ye gone a little bit, uh... overboard?" Din asked as Kanda sheathed his sword, which he'd finally regained, and shifted Nthanda. The baby was happily sitting in his pouch, give a raspberry to the dead Akuma. Din sighed, shaking his head as he thought about the implications of Nthanda's personality as he grew older. There wouldn't be any holding him back, that was for certain...

Kanda raised a single eyebrow at Din as an answer before looking down at the dog that was now sitting in front of him, eyes as wide and puppy-ish as they could go, and tail a-wagging.

"No," Kanda stated.

The dog yelped, shifting disappointingly as it tried to contain its enthusiasm.

"I'm _not _taking a dog," Kanda told the canine.

Those eyes seemed to get a little bigger, and... were those tears? Dogs didn't cry!

"Eh... Mistuh Kanda, y'might wanna consider deh dog, considerin' we had a run in wid deh local animahls now 'n agin, y'know? 'Specially dem monkehs..." Din sighed. He himself liked the dog, and Nthanda was definitely for keeping the mutt. He was practically falling out of his pouch reaching for his trusty steed. Kanda looked between the three of them, Nthanda, the dog, and Din. He licked his lips, tasting blood, and he let out a sigh, throwing up his hands.

"Y'know what, why not? Not like I don't have everyone and their grandmother already on this stupid mission as it is," he grumbled under his breathe as he stomped off. The dog barked happily as he followed at Kanda's heels, glad to have found another pack while Nthanda babbled and batted against Kanda's chest trying to convey his wish to ride upon the dog's back. It was actually quite... enjoyable, after all, feeling so high and mighty atop such a large beast (at least, large to the baby). Din could only smile that luminescent grin as he watched the trio: dog, baby, and samurai.

Who would have thought?

* * *

><p>The Comtesse watched them go with a renewed feeling of vigor. She looked over at the monster that had been slain, noting the steaming piles and massive amounts of foul smelling blood-like oil. That man must <em>fight <em>these things, and if that was so, perhaps... she could gain his affections in this manner. She suddenly took on a rather devious smile. Oh, yes, she could most certainly do something of the sort and turn this to her advantage! After all, her papa was quite influential, and Uncle definitely knew quite a few... clandestine organizations and whatnot. Perhaps he'd know a thing or two about these terrible... _things. _

She made a face at the dead body, and she began to head into town. Her three loyal servants had stayed far back from the fight, preferring to watch from the relative safety of an overhang in a church, hoping that perhaps the creature couldn't step on hallowed ground (for after all, it could NOT be a holy being!). She snapped her fingers at them, and the three hastily took formations around her. Even after all this time, they had not abandoned their boxes and bags or their posts. She turned around to them in a rush of skirts, and she said, "My dearests, we're going to be traveling quite a lot. I have a new mission!"

The servants restrained a groan. They _knew _she'd had her eyes set on that one the minute he'd taken the baby and she'd gotten a good look at him. They'd hoped that she'd drop him after his brutish treatment of her, but his chivalrous rescue of her must have sealed the deal. She was his new target, and she wasn't about to let him go.

"My sights are set on that one!"

"Um... Ma'am, what _is _his name, praytell?" one of them asked hesitantly, peering around his mountain of cargo. The woman stopped her tracks, mouth wide open with a smile on her face before her expression seemed to fall off and crash on the ground like so much plaster. She blinked, spluttering.

"I haven't the foggiest idea!"

* * *

><p>"You're lucky your nose hadn't healed yet," Ellis remonstrated. Kanda touched his nose gingerly, grimacing in pain.<p>

He wasn't surprised Ellis had been observant enough to catch his faster-than-normal healing rate. She'd displayed an uncanny knack for knowing everything Kanda didn't want her to know.

The doctor had had to snap it back into place, and soon after it had smoothed back into its regular, straight appearance, though Kanda still had the customary bruises under his eyes from the pooling blood. His body may be able to heal itself from miraculous (and some not-so-miraculous) injuries, but it knew how to prioritize. If it didn't need to be fixed or broken down pronto, it wasn't going to be doing it too soon.

Vanya, meanwhile, had just had her tongue stitched. She was lying in a hospital bed, looking very disgruntled and a bit loopy. She hadn't said a word, unsurprisingly. Nthanda was asleep in her arms, his unnaturally warm body much hotter than usual. They'd fed him nearly three bowls of cereal in the past hour to make up for the energy loss he'd incurred by going between places so many times.

"Tch," Kanda muttered under his breath. At his feet, the Rhodesian ridge-back that had followed them slept soundly, happy to know that he'd found a new home. After all, his old pack wouldn't take him, if they were still around. Those dogs were so rude! Always sniffing him when he didn't want to be sniffed, chasing him around if he'd found a nice piece of garbage to chew on... In his sleep, the dog whined and kicked his feet, running from imaginary enemies. Ellis tutted at the dog, gently slapping it awake with a knock of her cloth bag. The dog started with a jolt, and Kanda could sympathize.

"Now, I've found us the hotel -" Ellis said, but Din gave her a pointed look from his position by the hospital window.

"_You _found the hotel? Try, _I _found the hotel. You nearly had us lost... again," Din muttered, crossing his arms as he stared back out the window. Ellis opened and shut her mouth, but she had nothing to say, so she refrained from saying anything.

"_Dingane, _dearest, found the hotel. There are three rooms, so Nthanda can room with you, while I room with Vanya, and Din may have a room to himself. This will not pose problems, will it?" Ellis asked pointedly, looking between Vanya and Kanda. The two of them shared a dark look, and Kanda leaned back in his chair against the wall as an answer. It was quiet for a few more minutes before the silence was too much for Ellis.

"Alright, alright, let's get this cleared up once and for all! What is the _matter _with you two?!" Ellis demanded. Nthanda woke up with an irate cry, turning over. Vanya cooed at him, but she immediately slapped a hand over her mouth as the stitches in her tongue began to tug and pull. Kanda stood up, and he took the baby, shushing him and rocking him.

"Now look what you did," Kanda grumbled, though the words had no real bite. He was exhausted. All he wanted was a nice bath, some soup, and a good bed. Realizing that he had eyes on him, Kanda looked up. Ellis gave him an expectant stare while Din glanced over with badly hidden curiosity. Vanya looked chagrined, and the two of them avoided each other's gaze.

"I don't want to talk about it," Kanda spat out. However, upon realizing that no one was willing to yield their looks, Kanda sullenly sank in his chair and looked at Nthanda. The baby had gone back to sleep and was no help at all. There went his opportunity of distraction...

"Monkeys stole our clothes," Kanda haltingly admitted, not willing to meet their gazes. There was a moment of silence.

"Monkeys... stole your clothes?" Ellis asked.

"Are you deaf as well as blind and directionless?" Kanda quipped, and she ruffled with a 'harrumph!'

"But... dat don't explain y'bad mood wid Missuz Vanya," Din pointed out, gesturing with a finger to the invalid woman. Kanda took a big breath and closed his eyes. Maybe if he held it like that, eventually he'd pass out and he could escape.

But, of course, he couldn't do that. Go figure.

"Fine... well, it was hot yesterday and we went to the river..."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **So, I'm evil, and I'm going to leave it at a cliff hanger. You'll just have to read the next chapter to understand the goofiness that is African travel.

So, big big thanks to karina001, Lotus seed (please, ramble to your heart's content!), and Kai-Chan94. A thanks as well to the anon who gave the comment on the Hamlet reference. It, of course, was used rather incorrectly (as I had not yet read the play), but I like Shakespeare nods nonetheless.

A large thank you to all the people who read this story! I have no further subscribers/favoriteers to report.

And, instead of the usual discussion questions, I've decided to do a sort of poll instead: would a romantic subplot detract too much from the story? And if there was a romance, between which two would it be?

And for the discussion, I want to know what your favorite part of the story has been so far, as well as what's made you cry, made you laugh, and made you downright angry! Tell me your favorite moments and the thoughts accompanying those things. Tell me your own stories as well! Don't be afraid to put just about anything in that review box. It all helps.

God bless you, and watch out for flesh-eating bacteria! If you're anywhere near North or South Carolina and it says not to swim... don't swim.


	13. To Him

He woke up early in the morning. For some reason there was an atmosphere to this day that he couldn't quite put his finger on. It was this strange sort of bittersweet melancholy, like the sadness accompanying the act of letting go. He left the tent, noting that a mist had covered the ground. It was still dark; the sun hid behind the horizon, though the barest shades of orange and yellow smeared the sky. His breath came as a white cloud of fog before his face, and in the gloom he stepped over the dog that took guard before his tent, slumbering peaceful as it twitched in its sleep.

His footsteps were strangely crisp as he walked through the quietude of the camp, the early morning hush starkly outlining every noise and rush of wind. His hair lightly ruffled, passing by the tents of his fellow companions. Ellis snored relentlessly within her abode. Both Din and Vanya's tents were still. He pulled back the flap of Vanya's tent, noting that she was missing as well as Nthanda, and he let the flap fall. Something she'd mumbled yesterday had tipped him off to her disappearance. Oddly enough, he was not disturbed by either her or his charge's absence.

He trusted her. Though he hated CROW in general, and he was annoyed with this one in particular, he knew she loved that boy. She may not show it as overtly as Ellis, or as brightly as Din, but it was there. He could recognize love. Once upon a time he himself had known love of a sort, but any hope of realizing love once again, in any form, seemed a far off and impossible fairytale. He would let her love Nthanda. Heaven knew, he wasn't giving him nearly enough affection.

And so, he walked out of the camp. With every step, his thoughts seemed to drift backwards in time. The trees and rocks disappeared. The chattering of monkeys fell on deaf ears. Though he walked in false dawn's light, he was, in truth, somewhere very very different.

Rather, he is walking through streets of festive colors, cobbled stones beneath his shoes. People laugh and shout in surprise and delight. His mother walks ahead of him, holding the hand of a small child as he tries to keep up. Lanterns are brightly lit already, despite it being the very early hours of the morning. Beside him, a man walks, his facial features similar to a certain samurai. On his waist hangs a sword, though at this time the samurai had long since disappeared into the annals of history.

And oddly enough, he remembers, that day he was excited. Today was a day of great joy and fun. Fun? It was something he honestly wasn't sure he could recall accurately. But yes, fun was to be had. In anticipation, a little boy waits for the games and the fireworks, his mother holding him as he watches the firelight sail over the bay. His father teaches him the names of the constellations as they wait for the next volley to go off, lighting the night sky. A younger girl sits with his mother as she pins her daughter's hair. It had always seemed novel to him that, at one time, he might have had a sister.

Or, rather, _the other one _had had a sister. After all, he was a completely different person. This life was nothing like the one that had come before to spawn it. They were two sides of the same coin, so close as to almost touch yet so far apart.

But in this life, he had known fun, too. As his feet crunched on the rock below his feet, his mind again wandered into the past to a more recent, yet no less warm, memory. This one was his own to have and claim. For a moment a smile very nearly crossed his mouth, but not quite.

That dark-haired idiot runs across the room with a jar of mayo, having pilfered it from the chef only moments before. He honestly can't understand why his compatriot was so in love with the substance, but it had been... enjoyable taking it from the chef. The fact that the chef had promised them a rather heinous punishment should they attempt that single venture had made it all the more mischievously entertaining. For once, he'd had... something like fun. Not quite.

"You know what today is, Yuu?" the dark-haired idealist asked. He didn't bother trying to say anything to the contrary. His friend was indomitable. No matter his reply, he would always answer back exactly as he wanted to.

"What?"

"Today is Samhain!"

He stares at his friend in perplexity and annoyance. He was always spouting nonsense like this. Though both were highly imaginative, it was the dark-haired nutcase who always told stories to the others in the tanks. He himself had no time for such trivialities. He was too busy ignoring the lotuses and looking away from the woman who never seemed to go away. In fact, he enjoyed burying himself in blankets and daydreaming. It was a guilty pleasure; no man in their right mind admitted to daydreaming as a pastime.

"What the heck is sew-in?"

"No, no, Samhain, not sew-in. Like sow, and then in. It's a holiday they celebrate in Ireland!"

"Yeah? What's so important about it?"

"Well... uh... you dress up and... and you go and knock on doors and ask for cookies and... and the line between the dead and the living gets kinda fuzzy."

He continues to stare at his friend. He could see where this was going.

"Alma, have I ever told you you're an idiot?"

"Come on, why don't we try? We can have a bonfire, and eat candy all night, and dress up, and everything!"

He rolls his eyes. Such an idiotic idea, but... after today, perhaps it would be alright to try. After all, stealing the mayo was quite the diversion. Within hours, they had everything. They run through the facility laughing as they threw candy (again, pilfered from the sous chef), playing with fake swords that Zhu had been kind enough to make in between his bouts in the kitchen. The bonfire had to be canceled - Twi absolutely would not allow it. Instead, both boys sat in the middle of the womb room, surrounded by their slumbering compatriots, their shadows flickering on the walls in the dark light as the sun went down, and the moon began to rise. A lantern sprightly throws its light as the boys sit around it.

"Yuu?"

"Mm."

"I think I had too much candy."

It's silent a little while longer.

"Yuu?"

"What?"

"Do you think they'll wake up tonight?"

He's quiet. He honestly can't say. After all, that crap about spirits crossing to the living world, the traditions to keep away bad spirits and welcome the good, everything that they'd read out of the book Alma had found was just garbage. However, he could see it in Alma's face, the one thing he could never quite grasp: hope. It was something he envied, that hope. He looks into a tank, watching the water that is always perfectly still and always will be.

"Maybe. Maybe they will."

Alma looks off into the twilight, the windows revealing the coming dark of night. His eyes shine with a bright light, and he cocks his head as he thinks.

"There's always tomorrow."

Those words rang in his head. For him who had been his true friend, there was no tomorrow. It was a thing that would never come again. The vague warmth he felt at the memory dissipated in the wake of sorrow left within. Subconsciously he reached for his sword, but it did not hang at his waist. He had left it behind. How long had it been since he'd forgotten his sword in his tent?

Slowly, he realized that he was running out of places to walk. He was close to his destination. Actual light was replacing the false dawn that had colored the sky, true illumination painting the world in hues rather than shades. He stopped at the edge of the cliff they'd topped just the day before, looking over the plains of green grass, forests, and animals. Water glistened gold underneath the cap of the sun that peeked over the horizon. For a moment, he realized that the world he saw was...

Beautiful.

This had been Alma's favorite time of day. He had never quite understood why anyone cared to wake up so early just to see the sun rise, but watching that ball of fire slowly climb into the firmament, he began to see the reason behind the practice. Immediately, he could see what Alma had loved about this time of day. The night had passed, and the day was beginning. The stars continued to shine as the moon and sun shared the sky for just these few minutes. In a way, it was indicative of Alma's nature - the young boy coupled with the grown woman, two in the same yet so completely different and separate, never touching yet always in each others' presence. He took a deep breath, the bright air of morning filling his lungs easily.

And so he sat down, paying homage to one he had lost.

* * *

><p>Her footfalls were dead silent. Every breath was whisper thin. She stalked her prey with the ease of a well-trained huntress, slinking through the trees. Her ability to mesh with her surroundings was above par. No one could stay more still or remain more silent. Her CROW training and her childhood made her an adept at the art of hide-and-seek.<p>

"Boo!" she shouted suddenly.

However, her quarry was nowhere in sight. She frowned. He'd done it yet again!

There was only one other person who was as good at hide-and-seek as she was. Who better to play such a game than one who can teleport from point A to point B at will?

"Baba!" Nthanda said, grabbing on to Vanya's ankle. She smirked at the baby who'd just bested her at her own game. She scooped him up in her arms, and he squirmed and cried in mock horror. She tickled him mercilessly until he was squealing mirthfully for release. She smiled at the dark baby that was wriggling in her arms. She allowed him to drop to the ground, the baby so heavy now that even Kanda couldn't hang on to him for more than a few hours at a time. He was getting so big, and yet he still had not learned to walk. Though he attempted to stand up straight, every step he made was tentative and met with tears.

Nthanda stumbled on to his hands, and he quickly crawled into the underbrush to begin another round. Vanya smirked at the antics of the ten month old, and she got down on hands and knees, deciding to play his game.

Vanya cooed as well as she could with her injured tongue, searching through the tall grass. Suddenly, the stirring of the grass ceased, and Vanya's ears pricked up to the sound of a man's voice. She ducked down, her eyes growing wide as she tried to locate her quarry, suddenly aware of the danger they might be in. Though they were not enemies or affiliates of anyone, a young woman and child could easily be carried off and unspeakable things done unto them despite their innocence. Just in case, she peeled a knife from the inner folds of her clothes, knowing that was enough deterrent for even some of the most ferocious men. She slowly backed into a bush, her eyes peering out into the clearing where the voice emanated.

It took her a moment to realize that the voice was familiar, one she'd heard many times. However, in the present context it was alien, almost unrecognizable. She frowned as she watched a stranger emerge from the grass, a pair of boots she could not seem to place passing in front of her.

He was singing. It was out of tune, and it was halting. The voice was a deep baritone, full of a kind of warmth never used when merely speaking. It must be a well-loved song, because despite the terribleness of the quality, the song was quite pretty, full of harsh consonants and delicate vowels. It had a strange finesse about it, one that didn't come from the training of the singer, but from the heart of him, the difference between a mechanical orchestra and a loving musician of only a single instrument. She didn't know what the song was about. It was not in her native tongue - indeed, she'd never heard the language before. It was sad, but it was a sweet sad, like the taste of a bitter chocolate.

She glanced up, noting the belt and calloused hands, but she could barely see the face. However, by now she recognized his voice.

"Ka-ga!" Nthanda said loudly, crawling out of the underbrush towards him. A pair of strong hands picked up the beckoning child, grunting heavily as he hoisted him.

"What're you doing out here?" Kanda asked the babe, lending his fingers as reins to the baby to wrap his pudgy hands around. However, Nthanda deigned to only take one hand, majestically taking up a strand of hair in the other like an actual halter. Vanya frowned as he turned around, looking.

"I bet that old biddy lost sight of you while cooking," Kanda grumbled, turning back the way he came. Vanya watched for several minutes as he began to disappear down the trail back into the darkness of the forest, though light was steadily gaining the land. She followed silently, from tree to tree, watching silently. Every now and again, Kanda would stop, listen, and start walking again. Vanya guessed this was what the life of an Exorcist led to - constant paranoia and fear of attack. He had nothing to fear... mostly.

Vanya, frankly, still didn't trust Kanda. She was certain that he would complete his task, as commanded, but she had little knowledge of his inner thoughts. He was a shut individual, one she deemed rather... unstable. However, along the course of the trip she had to say that he had behaved quite well.

She was well aware of other fiascoes, however, and she was determined that no harm should come to the child. No harm should ever come to a child. Ever.

Kanda began humming his tune once again, his every step bouncing Nthanda high on his shoulders. Vanya scurried up a tree with the aid of a knife, silent as the wind. She watched from the branches as he headed towards a cliff, and her eyes widened slightly. He cared for the child surely. As certain as her heart had a beat, she knew that he had grown a fondness for Nthanda. Why bring him to a cliff...?

Kanda set the child down, and Nthanda babbled incoherently, though the gist of his displeasure at losing his lofty seat was well known by its recipient. The babe stood with the aid of Kanda's pant leg, staring out on the land, the vastness of it striking as the sun rose higher and higher. It was almost eight in the morning. The sun was climbing like a monkey up a tree. Vanya was nearly blinded by its brilliance.

"Wish we had a shrine," Kanda muttered, to the babe of course. Nthanda looked up at Kanda and burbled again, as if demanded to know what this thing it was he kept speaking about.

"I bet you don't even know what that is," Kanda guessed, and Nthanda pouted, a trick he must've learned from Ellis, because Vanya certainly hadn't taught him. Nthanda plopped down on the ground and began playing with the dirt, immediately disinterested with whatever Kanda had to say. Obviously, to him, the samurai wasn't about to explain. Kanda seemed amused, however, a rare mood. He picked up the child, and Vanya watched.

"You make one when a person dies," Kanda explained to Nthanda. His face was somber, never once losing its intensity but, perhaps, becoming a touch warmer. "To remember them by. Honor them."

Nthanda looked up, and he touched Kanda's face with his dirt-caked fingers. Kanda looked surprised for a moment, and Vanya frowned as she wondered what had transpired. She remember distinctly the... last encounter that Nthanda's mutual touch had enabled.

However, it seemed nothing as Nthanda started reaching for the ground and whining. Vanya tried not to smirk. He was so much better behaved around her than the samurai. She was just that good.

"I don't know why I try to tell you these things," Kanda sighed. "Not like you'll remember." He let the kid drop to the ground gently on all fours. Nthanda sat down at Kanda's feet as the Japanese Exorcist looked out over the land with his hands in his pockets. Nthanda looked up at Kanda with a pensive look, and suddenly Kanda's history slowly came back to Vanya.

Someone... someone dear had died, at his hand no less. She grew dark in visage, her heart suddenly panging as if someone had snapped at her heartstrings like an elastic band. Kanda was truly alone, in many ways. Last of his kind, in many ways. A survivor, in many ways. Along with that came a guilt that couldn't be spoken of. She clamped down on the feeling of pity, extinguishing as a flame between her fingers. She knew better. Her purpose was not to view him as an object deserving of any sort of emotion. He was a mark, a target, a means to an end.

She dropped from the tree, and she stood up, dusting herself-

"And you tell me I'm a terrible parent," Kanda snipped, holding the child in his arms not a foot away from her. She looked up in surprise, completely taken off-guard.

Vanya stamped her feet, unable to retaliate, as Kanda started walking back to the camp with Nthanda sitting on his shoulder, a king in his own right.

* * *

><p>"I just want a few things," Kanda assured as the town bustled around him. Ellis grumbled under her breath, covered by the sound of a truck trundling along the dirt road that constituted the local market's location.<p>

"The last time you wanted 'a few things', we bought an armory," Ellis muttered, crossing her arms. Din tried not to laugh as Kanda's dour expression grew darker. The hot air seemed to stir up the emotions and raise the color in everyone's faces. Vanya had stayed back at camp with Nthanda, deciding that it wasn't needed to have all of them at the same time. Kanda was not at all happy at Vanya's assumed custody considering the lack of (perceived) protection from an Akuma threat, but his (and her) arguments were silenced by the deciding word of Dingane and his good sense.

"It was necessary."

"Perhaps if we were going to invade a war lord's mansion. Then yes. It would have been _necessary._"

"Just like a biddy. Penny pincher," Kanda complained.

"Just like young men. _Wanton spender,_" Ellis echoed.

Din decided it was best to get ahead of the firestorm about to explode in the air between the two hotheads.

"I tink one a' deh china be broke, mum. Ent a bad ting to go 'n shop 'round a few tings, y'know," Din reasoned, his dark skin covered in a sheen of sweat. He wiped his forehead with a single, brawny arm. He'd opted for a shirtless vestment considering the increasing heat as they got closer and closer to the equator. Despite the fact they'd only just left British-occupied South Africa, the temperature seemed to be rising perpetually. It was especially apparent here where the dirt seemed to clog the air, and it coated every surface it touched. The houses were immaculate, no doubt cleaned up by the inhabitants and their wondrous knowledge of their predicament, but the outsiders were caked in the fine particles.

Ellis reluctantly conceded this, her lined face straightforward and unreadable. Finally, she waved a hand.

"Of course, of course. Run off, take the entire penny bag. Don't come back til you've spent every last drop of money we've got," Ellis sighed, handing over the bag of currency into his hand as if she were bequeathing upon him a dead rat. Kanda quirked a single eyebrow.

"I'll meet you back here around 2 o clock. Do you hear me? _2 o clock._ No waiting for twelve hours at a stupid lamp post."_  
><em>

"That was not my doing. The stupid dog somehow swallowed my pocket watch."

Said dog, the Rhodesian ridge back that had followed them from the previous town, sat salivating at Ellis' feet, having become quite enamored with her after realizing that she was partial to feeding him scraps when no one was looking. He hid behind Ellis' skirts as Kanda glared at him. The ridge-back had made the mistake of waking the swordsman one morning for an early back rub. Kanda had not appreciated this. The ridge-back's tail had been in grave danger.

Kanda gave Ellis a parting glance before nodding to Din and heading off into the crowds of women buying groceries from the various vendors in their trucks, wagons, and on their pack animals.

"I guess this means we must trudge on and find us some good china," Ellis muttered to herself, making sure her money belt was tucked deep underneath the folds of her blouse where it would be safe from any pickpocket. In order to get to it, even the most daring child must reach under her prodigious bosom to reach the treasure trove of coins that seemed to be in every currency conceivable. At one time, they'd gone to a bank to draw money for they were short on coin, and all four watched in amazement as stack after stack of coins-of-the-realm were dispensed. Given her background as a rich old woman with nothing better to do than follow a young man on his adventures with a baby, they had not questioned this.

"Y'want to search over dere firs' ?" Din asked, pointing to a series of tarps held over tables with sticks to make shade for the owners and their wares. Sure enough, fine china was spread along the ground on blankets and on the table. Ellis' eyes sparkled with delight at the sight of good plate and silverware, and she promptly grabbed Din by the arm and hauled him along as helplessly as a ragdoll.

"Much china to see, not enough time! Let's go!" Ellis enthusiastically sounded, starting the charge, the ridge-back following at a gallop and a grin on his doggy face.

However, it was clear after nearly thirty minutes of pawing that there wasn't much of interest to the older lady. She pushed back her wavy brown-and-gray hair in frustration as it yet again escaped the immaculate bun at the back of her head.

"I should have known better. This _is _a backwater town. How could I have expected them to have anything as good as Wedgwood?" she asked herself, tapping her lips with a finger. Din was busy perusing lunch, rather than its container, so Ellis was alone, happy to occupy herself with the art of examining service. The ridge-back lay at her feet, snuffling now and again at the feet of passersby.

"I believe this piece to be quite the genuine article, however. The distinctive pattern is obviously an 1832 netting pattern around the edge," someone stated imperiously, holding up a plate much to the distress of the seller. Ellis, not to be outdone by a newcomer, skeptically tutted as she examined the piece herself.

"Nonsense. That's not a netting at all! It's a vine lattice, and Wedgwood would never do such a tacky thing," Ellis said, crossing her arms over her rather buxom chest.

"Is it, Melissa?" the newcomer said, and Ellis' eyes widened at the mention of her name. She took a second look at the other traveler frequenting the market, and her face suddenly resolved into a fine mask as smooth and precise as any of the plates on the tables in front of her.

"You've come an awfully long way for something so small as a check up, Malcolm," Ellis said, her voice frosty enough to produce icicles, it seemed, despite the equatorial heat. She didn't deign to look at her mustachio'd relative, preferring to examine a tea cup with a fine leaf design along the saucers. "I doubt that it's for social reasons. You never played nice with others."

"I have my reasons," Leverrier sniffed. They were quiet in each other's company, Ellis delicately placing the tea cup she had taken back on its designated saucer. The chatter and hubbub of the market filled the blank spaces between. The ridge-back at Ellis' feet finally noticed the newcomer and, noticing Ellis' displeasure, began a low growl. Malcolm looked down at the dog with a look that was less like trepidation and more like annoyance, though shades of both persisted.

"I hadn't expected to see you so soon," Melissa admitted, readjusting her glasses. Her voice was flat, a contrast to her usually active mezzo.

"No one ever does. Or hope to. How far have you gotten?" Leverrier asked.

"Not far at all, I'm afraid. There's not much to see."

"And the Exorcist?"

"Stable, as always. He has grown rather... fond of the child."

"...I see. I had not expected that. Will this pose a problem?"

"What sort of problem?"

"You are well aware, Melissa-"

"Yes, I am, _Malcolm. _However, I do not do this for your own benefit; I have other reasons. Why didn't _you _decide to tramp over half of God's green earth if you wanted the job done right, anyways?" Melissa asked coldly, briskly brushing off Leverrier's glare with a practiced snub. She was obviously used to responding to this sort of treatment.

"You know why," Leverrier said. "He doesn't trust me."

"He's smarter than I give him credit for, then."

"The notebook?"

Melissa looked sidelong at her relative, her mouth set into a thin line. She dug around in her money belt, pulling out the notebook she'd written in for the past few weeks. She tore out a few pages from it, and she handed the sheaf of papers to Leverrier. The man stuck them into his pocket hastily as if hiding a great burden or prized jewel. They locked eyes.

"If he sees you, he'll know. You'd best leave," Melissa suggested, her mask of polite disdain never once changing. Her hands remained clasped over her stomach, waiting diligently for Leverrier to make the next move.

"He's here?" Leverrier asked tentatively.

_Of course, you dolt. I _follow _him, _Ellis thought with a mental groan. She merely nodded instead of answering, deciding this would be a more tactful approach.

"In this market. Now, go on. I know you want to get those cake supplies. Though I'd suggest staying away from the corn flour - they like to throw in plaster as ballast," Ellis warned, shooing him off with a wave of her hand. Leverrier smirked.

"Don't lose your head, Melissa," he stated. "Remember the task at hand."

"Yes, yes, I understand, now _get." _At this word, the ridge-back growled more menacingly and stood, sensing his friend's ire towards the large man. Leverrier stood firm. Malcolm looked down at the dog before backing up and eyeing Melissa.

"Remember the task."

With that, he left, blending into the crowd like a ghost in a cemetery. Ellis watched him go with a shiver down her spine, her fell purpose reinforced in her mind. The guilty notebook seemed to bleed against the walls of the money belt, and she turned her face to the china before her. How easy she'd been lured, a fish in a trap...

"Who was dat you was talkin' to, Miz Ellis?" Din asked over her shoulder, carrying several parcels of food. She dazedly stared at the china, tracing her fingers around the edge of a chipped teacup.

"Just an acquaintance, Dingane."

"Oh... dat plate dere, das a nice one, I tink. Wedgwood, nice vine engravin', y'know?"

"Dear... that's not a Wedgwood... and that's not an engraving..."

* * *

><p>He had just about everything he needed. The bowl hadn't been hard to find, and neither had the fruit, but he was having a hard time with some of the other items. He'd scoured most of the market, and he was beginning to lose hope. He clicked open his pocketwatch, and he tried not to wince at the time. Ellis would have his neck if he stayed out past 2 o clock and left her hanging. He'd never hear the end of it. He'd have to chop off his ear, and even then it would grow back and he'd still have to listen to the entire spiel over again. There was no stopping her once she got started. She must've been a monster in the office.<p>

Now he just needed-

"Oh YOOOOOHOOOOO! Sweet prin- I MEAN poorest father, dear! Love, over here, it's me!"

Kanda felt his stomach and intestines wrap around his ankles. Really? _Really? Of all days he had to run into that woman ..._

He rolled his eyes heavenward, trying his hardest not to grab his sword and threaten to lop off every single hair on her head. He knew he could do it, but considering how little his deterrents had had an effect, this would do nothing more than inflame her and convince her that he _wanted _all those locks of hair. She was worse than any Akuma. At least with an Akuma, he could get rid of the problem with a swipe of the sword. If he tried to get rid of her, he'd have to do paperwork until he was a white beard.

The swordsman slowly turned his head towards the source of the noise, and sure enough a familiar redheaded lady with a prim nose, the latest travel dress, and three loyal servants tagging along behind made her way towards him in a flounce of skirts and bodice. He was horribly reminded of their first encounter, in which he had to save her as the damsel in distress. He was hoping there would not be a repeat feature.

"Oh, my dearest love, I have been searching for you!" Lavinia gasped romantically. Kanda thought he was going to choke.

"Uh-huh," was all he could say. She stood in front of him, hair flying away dramatically (carefully styled to look _just _the right amount of messy without coming off as tacky or unappreciative of her beauty) with a coy look on her face.

"I'm sure you must have been _distraught _when we were separated. Shhh! Don't speak. I understand your pain," she said theatrically, placing her finger over his lips. He stared at her with a look that could've boiled twelve eggs in one sitting, and he honestly wondered if she would ever see that finger again. It was in danger of disappearing forever.

"Excuse me," Kanda said, brushing past the good Comtesse with a brusque pleasantry. She turned around quickly, trying to catch up in her travel boots (with the heel just high enough to give that wonderful leg effect without making her overbearingly tall). Her servants rallied quickly to follow.

"B-but good sir, I, uh, I have no rest for the night! I am in need of greatest assistance!" she urged, suddenly coming up with a yarn. Yes... yes! A true gentleman could not at all leave a lady to suffer all on her own! And was he not a true gentleman? He did save her from a horrendous monster, and more importantly he had ignored her ever since! Obviously, he feared for her life! After all, a man of such prodigious power must attract evil attention, and anyone close by could be put to death by the mere vicinity of the gentleman (meaning he cared enough about her welfare to shoo her off - how romantic)!

"I'm sure you'll be fine. Three servants sell for quite a lot around here," Kanda quipped, never once looking back. The servants all looked at each other in alarm as Lavinia considered this seriously. She discarded it, much to their relief, and she continued on her quest for the man's heart.

"Oh, but you don't understand! I am in dire assistance for I am, uh... pursued. Yes. I need one to protect me," Lavinia sighed, hanging on to his arm. Kanda looked down at her, trying his hardest not to shake her off as he would an annoying, small dog latched to his humerus.

"Not interested. A little busy with my own kid," Kanda muttered, speeding up his pace. She stamped her foot, fuming as she watched him walk away from her.

"I... I... I will scream for the nearest Akuma to come and kidnap me!" she threatened, and Kanda stopped in his tracks. It was dead silent in the street, this being a byway more than part of the market. There was only one vendor towards the end, an incense seller who was steadily chewing through a small bag of sweet potato fingers as the drama unfolded.

The swordsman, his back turned to the young lady, gently put down his things. He turned around to the young Comtesse, his eyes stony dark, such a darkness that she was momentarily frightened. Her blood froze stiff in her veins as he began to walk towards her.

"Madam... madam, we should go. He seems displeased," one of her servants whispered in her ear. She shushed him, shooing him away. The redheaded noblewoman stood up to her full five foot six, still nearly a head shorter than the man walking towards her. Finally, he was a mere two feet away. And then, he was a mere foot away. Then, he was six inches. Three inches. ...One inch. ...Half... an inch...

She could practically feel her heart beat out of her chest as fear gripped her, a fear she'd never quite known before. Even the fear of a creature as hideous as the thing that had kidnapped her nearly a week and a half ago was nothing compared to this primal, ancient fear. It was a fear of something dark, insidious, dangerous, a something only men knew how to exude, that darkness that mankind had perfected to use in tormenting another. It seemed to waft off of him in waves, bathing her in wretched oily fear.

She looked into his eyes, eyes that she had once thought beautiful. In fact, they were still beautiful, but in the same way that a lava flow is gorgeous or that a poisonous spider is elegant. He suddenly grabbed her chin, almost a caress, and though she knew this was the touch she thought she'd yearned for, there was something twisted about it, wrong. It was rough and harsh, a yank more than a touch. Her chin was lifted towards him, nearly lip to lip as he seemed to examine her, the fly in the web. Her lip quivered as she was paralyzed.

"You... don't understand what you're dealing with," he breathed in her ear, going past her mouth to the side of her head. "You are a sick, spoiled little child who wants what she can't have, and she needs a lesson. You'd better learn it before you or someone else gets hurt. I'm not going to save every screaming broad who's stupid enough to get caught in an Akuma's claws or under his guns for the sake of being _rescued _by some _prince_. I'll have you know... a prince I am not."

A tear nearly escaped from her eye as he released her, shock passing through her as she thought of the insult that had just passed by her ear.

_You are a sick, spoiled little child..._

Much to everyone's amazement, however, Kanda found himself staring down the barrel of an old rifle quivering in the hands of one of the servants that followed Lavinia like a duckling after its mother.

"Y-you let go of the Lady Comtesse. That is no way to treat a lady, and you should be ashamed," the servant stuttered, standing his ground. Kanda stared down at the gun with an indifferent look before raising his eyebrows.

"Never mind about what I said about the servants. The prices here are dirt cheap. They'd swindle you," Kanda remarked, turning on a heel without a backwards glance. Lavinia stood there, staring at his retreating back, her gaze almost completely vacant. The object of her prodigious affections continued his forwards walk without a hitch, and she felt as if she were empty.

No one had ever insulted her. At least, not to her face. Because she was perfect. Right? The others were just jealous of her perfection, her ability, her... her...

"Lady Comtesse? Are you alright?" one of the servants asked. She dazedly stared at him, hardly even registering his presence.

"Yes, Lorenzo, I'm fine. I'm alright."

Meanwhile, Kanda picked up his bag of supplies, clutching it almost as if it was a life preserver.

**That was rude and cruel. She was interested in you. **

_It was necessary. _

**You broke her. **

_She can recover a broken heart. _

**Are you sure? You never did. **

The little voice on the inside, the one that had stopped him in his tracks so many times on this journey, seemed disappointed and disgusted with him. Every rebuttal was a true and honest fact, but he continued to fight with more truths. He had thought he could make it through the day, keep his promise as he'd vowed to the one he owed it to on this day, but it seemed that even something so simple as 'be at peace' was beyond his abilities.

He stared into his bag, ignoring the sticky guilt covering the inside of his chest cavity. He sighed, wondering what was the matter with him. Two years ago, he wouldn't have felt a single twinge for saying something like that to a woman. Now, he felt as if he was responsible for her next actions, whatever may come. He stopped at the incense seller, who was still calmly munching on his bag full of sweet potato fingers.

"I'll take three."

_Forgive me, Alma. I don't know what I'm doing. I was never good at this. _

"Now that was somethin'. Wha'ssa matter witchu, ey?"

"Bad day."

"Alright, alright. Two guineas."

* * *

><p>"What is he doing?"<p>

"Dunno. He Japanese, y'know. They tink funny."

"What do you think, Vanya, dear- oh, I'm so sorry, I forgot."

"Mhmmm hmhmmm."

Nthanda looked up at the three standing by the cliffside. The Rhodesian ridge-back sat behind the baby, the little boy sitting in between his paws as if using the dog as his personal throne.

Kanda stood with his back to them, leaning down and fiddling with something or other. Nthanda had been particularly displeased with his absence today, especially after only _one _shoulder ride! What sort of childhood was he to have with only _one _shoulder ride? Even a poor kid like him deserved some attention. He'd been stuck playing peekaboo for nearly ten minutes! Not that he didn't enjoy peekaboo, of course... there was something enjoyable about Vanya disappearing and reappearing as if by magic every time this weird darkness over came his eyes when her hands came close to his face...

Never the less, Nthanda had been confused as to what Kanda's purpose had been to _leaving _him, bringing back this weird amalgamation of things, all of which seemed unrelated, and having the face of a thunderstorm. Nthanda knew for a fact that something had happened. The boy prided himself over the fact he was particularly sensitive to his caretaker's moods, knowing exactly what was going on in that sealed box of a person just by the twitch of his eye or swing of his head. Today, though, he seemed a whirlwind of things, all of which were confusing and overwhelming to Nthanda's usual grasp of human emotion. For a baby he had a fairly wide range of emotional understanding.

"Kanda, what is it that you're doing?"

"Quiet, Gran, I'm praying."

"You _pray?! _I find that nearly blasphemous to whatever deity you pray to!"

"I pray to God, thank you very much."

"I don't know _what _God you pray to, considering it can't be mine."

"Leave him be, Ellis, deah. E'en he got the right to have a momen' a silence."

Nthanda looked up at the dark between the stars, noticing that a curl of smoke was emitted from where Kanda happened to be standing. It wasn't quite night yet. The sun was so low on the horizon, it appeared to be a single cap of red on the horizon, the stars flanking its departure. Beyond the cliff they were standing on, the land seemed to glow in the last caress of the sun. Nthanda babbled to the dog, patting his foreleg. The dog set his head on the foreleg, whining slightly with a roll of his eyes to the baby. There was only the sound of the crickets chirping, the hoot of a night owl, the distinct howl of the jackals. Behind him, Nthanda could sense the apprehension of his traveling companions, their desire to be back around the security of a fire almost palpable.

"You can leave if you want. I'll catch up with you later," Kanda said. His face was slightly lit from beneath, something on the ground in front of him giving off a light like a dying ember. The sun, so similar, gave the same effect to the land, and it was totally still for one moment, as if the earth had decided to hold its breath. Even the animals ceased their chatter.

Vanya was the first to step forward, patting Kanda's shoulder. She left with a whisper of sound.

Din stepped forward the second, not saying a word, merely staring at the mystery object that was blocked from Nthanda's view by Kanda's body. Instead, he put something down in front of Kanda and walked away.

Ellis was last, her footsteps tentative.

"Today is the day you lost someone, isn't it, dear?" Ellis asked bluntly, standing behind Kanda. The young man didn't say a word, merely stared forward. Nthanda watched with fascination. It wasn't every day that Ellis sounded sincere.

"I understand. A coincidence, really," Ellis chuckled darkly. The last rays of the sun played across her old visage, outlining her wrinkles as if to emphasize her age and the heaviness in her eyes.

"Coincidence?" Kanda asked, a rare moment of curiosity. Nthanda stood up with the help of the dog, and the ridge-back whined quietly as Nthanda shakily held himself up without the use of his living crutch.

"My sons. I had three. They never had any children, at least none that they recognized. Ha, they were always so eager to spread their wild oats, but the minute a lady came back, they were... they were gone. I probably have a good number of grandchildren, I just... don't know where they are," Ellis said, kneeling next to Kanda. Nthanda felt a pout coming on, seeing Ellis so old. She appeared almost broken, a crumbling edifice that was just barely managing to keep its structure.

"You said Mr. Goldfield had died a while ago," Kanda said, turning to Ellis. The old woman's eyes were far away.

"Yes. He had."

"...I'm sorry."

"No use being sorry, ducky. What's done is done. There was no way to have seen it coming."

"What happened?"

Nthanda was appalled! How could he ask such a thing! In his little baby mind, he was overtaken with anger at the very thought that Kanda would hurt Ellis that way, but it appeared to do the old woman no damage. The dog seemed of a better understanding, and he stood over the baby, blocking him from intervening.

"Insurgency riot. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Gunshots, pipes, the whole bit and piece. Arnold was first. Died immediately. Bertrand and Cameron were less fortunate. Bert died on his way to the hospital. Cameron hung on for a week, but infection took him on the eighth day. I sat with him. And all because I wanted a few fresh yams from the dark market," Ellis recounted tonelessly, as if all this had happened to someone else.

It was quiet.

"So you have no one."

"Not quite. I have you. And the little one," Ellis admitted slowly, looking at Kanda. Nthanda looked back and forth between the two. Even without his touch, he could feel the strange maternal love rekindled in Ellis. Kanda was just as surprised as the baby, staring at Ellis with wide eyes.

"You mean more than you think," Ellis said, patting Kanda's cheek hard with a cheeky smirk. "Even if you're a stubborn idiot who can't see past his own nose."

Kanda stared at the thing at his feet, and Ellis did the same.

"Whatever you've done, I don't think they hold it against you anymore," Ellis said. "Take heart, love."

Unexpectedly, she kissed Kanda's temple, and he let her, lingering for a moment, before she got up in a flounce of her skirts.

"Come, Nthanda. Time for beddy-bye," she cooed at the baby, but he ducked her attempt at reaching him, going off at a headlong tilt to Kanda. The samurai caught the baby, staring at him.

Nthanda babbled at Kanda, patting his thigh and ignoring the amazed look on his face.

"You...just..."

At last, Nthanda could see the thing that everyone seemed fascinated with.

It wasn't very impressive. He was a little disappointed. He'd expected something a little bit more... exciting.

It was a tiny pedestal on the ground with a bowl on top of it. In the bowl, there were two oranges and some other unidentifiable African fruit. Stuck amid the fruit were punks, lit on the ends to release a pleasant aroma and a very slight wisp of smoke. In his hand, Kanda held a few more, and at his feet were a few coins, presumably what Din had dropped. Nthanda was certain he knew what this was supposed to be but only at the back of his mind. Otherwise, the assortment escaped his understanding.

"I didn't know he could walk."

"He can't. Those were his first actual steps."

"Ha! I'll go and tell the others! This calls for cake!"

"What cake? He walked. You act like he beat a squadron on his own."

"For some, walking is itself an accomplishment, I will have you know! This is momentous! Let an old biddy celebrate the small things in life!"

With those words, Ellis tramped off happily, humming a happy tune to herself. Nthanda watched her go with a perplexed expression before throwing a raspberry in an 'I give up' gesture. Kanda suddenly picked him up, and Nthanda looked up at the swordsman. Kanda set him in his lap, sitting cross-legged in front of the small thing before him. Past it, the cliff dropped, and the countryside darkened under the weight of night.

Nthanda burbled pleasantly in Kanda's lap, holding himself up as if he were a king atop his throne.

"Hey. Listen," Kanda said, looking down at the child sitting with him. Nthanda leaned back, his head bumping into the swordsman's chest.

"I'm only going to say this once. So you'd better be paying attention," Kanda said, looking at the thing in front of him. It was quiet for a while, and Nthanda wondered what he meant. Kanda, after all, was less than talkative. The silence suited him more than conversation.

"Once upon a time, there were two brothers."

Okay, very simple, very basic. Nthanda could follow this.

"They loved each other. They fought each other. They played pranks on each other. But they never said they loved each other. That was stupid."

Backstory! Oooh, goodie! This story has depth! A lot better than Ellis' disjointed stories about bears and little girls and porridge...

"And one day, something bad happened to one of the brothers. He was kidnapped."

And here we are: conflict. The meat of the story. Nthanda was entranced.

"And the other brother followed him."

The plot. It thickens. Nthanda was sitting as far back as possible.

"He found his kidnapped brother. But on the way, his mind was broken. The people who had kidnapped the younger brother told him a dark secret about them both. And he went mad."

Aaaaah, so the plot didn't resolve like he thought.

"And the younger brother had to kill the older. To stay alive."

Oh. Plot twist. He hadn't seen _that _coming. Nthanda hummed appreciatively. But there was something about Kanda's face... Nthanda's visage slowly turned into one of sadness at the immense despair that seemed to be plastered on his caretaker's face like so many layers of paint, a masterpiece of pain.

"But the younger brother never forgot his older brother. And every year, he made sure he told his brother he loved him."

Nthanda looked at the little pedestal with its bowl and incense. He was suddenly reminded of his mother, that poor woman who had been cursed with bearing his body within her, and bearing him without as well. A seriousness fell over him. Nthanda suddenly made a grab for the punks in Kanda's hand, and he waved it in Kanda's face with a babble.

Kanda guided Nthanda's hand towards one of the already-lit punks, and it slowly started to smoke. Clumsily, Nthanda began to stick it into the bowl, and once more Kanda helped the baby with the action. Quietly, they sat there for a while, letting the smoke wisp over their heads and listening to the sounds of the night.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **I'm back! After a very long hiatus, I have returned! I hope that my absence has not long inconvenienced any of you. My writing will still be very choppy and disorganized, and unfortunately I can't say that I'll have a schedule after this. I'm hoping that I'll get to the end of at least ONE fic, and I'd especially like it to be this one. I have plans...

Now, the discussion questions! _What have you missed about this story? Did you enjoy the switch in perspectives? What would you consider to be the 'style' of this story? What sort of themes do you notice? What do you make of Ellis and her relationship with Malcolm? Do you think other canon characters should be incorporated into the story? What do you make of Lavinia, and will she recover? What was significant in this chapter? Which chapter so far is your favorite? Do you enjoy watching the story progress? Are there characters acting _out _of character? _

Well, that's all I have for the discussion. To answer the question concerning Lavinia, no, that was a complete coincidence concerning her name and appearance! I honestly hadn't thought of that until you'd brought up, hahahaha! After that, I noticed the uncanny similarities and thought 'What have I done?! I've accidentally created a fem!Lavi!' This is the sort of thing that I need to have pointed out to me. I probably should've had that proofread... No, she is not a fem!Lavi, but this _may _become a point later on...

The consensus is in on the romance subplot! ... I just won't tell you what it is. You'll have to keep reading. ;)

Big big thanks to my reviewers (sheesh, I have a lot for the last chapter): all three of my Guests, Lotus Seed (thank you so much for answering my questions!), Ningen, karina001, DGrayman GRL, and Kai-Chan94!

My favoriteers have grown by quite a lot! You guys have multiplied! My regards to LatheJoiye, Derrian, nekozuki666, Sinopaa, Confusedrambler, cool-girl027, V509-Cas, and AegleAusteja! Considering I've been gone for a few months, I'm glad this thing hasn't been neglected...

And finally, my subscribers: Sinopaa (a double dipper, I see), cool-girl027 (another one!), Cassis-chan, and jumpforjoy!

I apologize for the length. I guess I'm releasing a few months worth of writing all at once...

God bless you and happy reading!


	14. Two's Company, Three's A Crowd

Everything was sharp and bright. His vision struggled to focus, going in and out like a camera that was broken. She bounced and swayed in his vision, haloed by the sun and the bright, white-blue sky like some angel of the end. He tried to shade his eyes, but he found he couldn't move. He tried to move towards her, but his feet were stuck in the ground like metal poles. His voice was dissolute, words coming out and becoming snatched by the wind. He was helpless. The chanting was all around him, that loud, never-ending cacophony of old voices in unison. He could feel them behind him, spurring him on to his destiny, whatever that may be, but he could feel that _she _was merely a signpost, a thing he'd pass on the way.

She smiled at him, a sad, lingering smile. The blue sky nearly swallowed her in its brilliance, and he was shouting her name, but the drowning noise of the chants and the great wind blowing past him stole his screams of desperation. Her hair was blown away from her face, skirts swirling around her, and he finally noticed they were on a cliff, so far off the ground. Her face was painted with lines of blue down her cheeks, black across her lips like the smear of Death's kiss, and a white dot on her forehead. She held up a mirror, showing him his face.

A grinning skull seemed to stare back at him, white paint against his already pale skin, outlining the bones that lay beneath, a red stripe over his forehead like a smack of blood. His eyes were painted dark, and across his chest was a leather strap holding a variety of objects that he couldn't quite see or understand. On his back was his sword, naked and gleaming, and... over his shoulder, a dark boy stood with deep, gold eyes. He knew that face, but he couldn't place where. And behind him...

There were legions of them. Old men. Young men. All warriors, all carrying spears, all wearing the same war paint of the dead, mimicking skeletons as if this would trick Death himself to pass over them.

She put her finger to her lips, her eyes almost conspiratorial, as she shook her head. She stepped backwards.

He pleaded with her.

She took another step.

His eyes were wide and terrified. She couldn't do this to him.

Her heels were on the edge of the cliff.

_He needed her. She couldn't leave.  
><em>

She smiled at him again, that lingering smile he'd loved. The sun seemed to swallow her as she fell backwards over the horizon, hand outstretched-

The dog was barking as if someone was trying to kill him, and Kanda opened his eyes, groggy. It was as if someone had burned an image into his eyes, that image of her. She'd been real as day. But what was all that _racket _about?!

Disoriented, Kanda first located his sword with his hands, locating the baby with his eyes at the same time. Nthanda was crying, rudely awakened by the dog. However, it wasn't just the dog that was making noise. He could hear the sounds of voices, deep and sonorous. They shouted in a language he wasn't familiar with, and he scrambled to pick up Nthanda first. A gunshot went off, and Kanda's nerves turned to white hot steel. He burst out of his tent on the side closest to the brush, ready to slice and dice anyone who happened to be in the way.

Luckily there was no one there, but he could already sense that there were several intruders in his camp.

_"What the devil is going on here?!" _

Kanda tried not to roll his eyes and failed. Of course, the old biddy would tell _everyone _from here to Cairo exactly where she was and how out of her depth she seemed to be. He snuck around the edge of the camp to see if he couldn't get an idea of what was going on, Nthanda quieted against his white shirt as the baby recognized their situation. There were approximately ten to thirteen men around the edges of camp and inside of the circle of tents, most of them lost in the high brush grass. He could see Ellis, but he hadn't expected what he saw.

She had a green paste on her face, her hair done in a tight knot at the top of her head, making her look doubly ridiculous in her nightgown. Where had she gotten facial cream? _When _did she manage to get a hold of facial cream? They hadn't managed to reach a depot or even a settlement for that matter for nearly three weeks. They were in the heartland of the northern British South African holdings, headed towards some little town where they could catch a train into Mozambique and hitch a ride on a boat as far as they could make it.

Of course, in between them and Mozambique was a high plain and several angry, murderous groups of anti-British insurgents. Most of them, unfortunately, knew Kanda's face, or at the least his hair. The statuesque Japanese man was a little hard to miss.

Kanda heard the snap of a twig behind him, and he immediately brought his sword to heel on the intruder's neck, just a centimeter above the skin. His eyes widened as he realized that, in the dark, all he could see were the whites of two eyes and the row of pearly teeth grinning from a pitch-black face like some sort of gruesome Cheshire cat. Vanya's form put up a single finger to her mouth amid the commotion, and faster than Kanda could catch, she disappeared like a ghost amid the mist.

Kanda turned back to face his camp, eying the men ordering Din out of his tent, the sleepy Finder more disgruntled than frightened by their guns. Ellis was stony faced, though it was hard to tell under all that facial cream. If he didn't know better, he'd say she had squash patches over her eyes, too. Kanda settled into the grass, deciding on a plan of action and wondering what in the _world _to make of Vanya, when suddenly half the men seemed to drop dead. The others shouted in fear, pointing their guns at both Ellis and Din, voices loud and frightened. Kanda made his move swiftly, clutching Nthanda in one hand (just barely - he was getting too big for this sort of thing) and wielding Mugen in the other.

Three men went down, crying out as their hamstrings were neatly parted from muscle with a near surgical cut. Out of the corner of his eye, Kanda managed to see the black blur of something jumping across the burning coals of the fire and plant its feet neatly on the chest of a man who'd pointed his gun at the Exorcist. Kanda caught the assailant in the crook of his elbow by the scruff of the neck and forced her down to the ground, unsurprised by an inky-skinned Vanya struggling in his grasp like a fox caught by a trap. Kanda smirked- until he heard Nthanda babble, "Uh-oh."

The click of a gun being cocked made its unwanted entrance into his ears, and Kanda sighed without turning around. There was always _one _more left. Kanda wasn't especially good at math. Kanda was _about _to curse under his breath, but Nthanda was within earshot and, unfortunately, so was Ellis. He'd never hear the end of it.

"Din, ask him what he wants," Kanda asked, projecting to the Finder. Din shouted to the assailant as Kanda tightened his grip on Vanya's neck, causing her to gag.

"It'll be easier if you don't struggle," Kanda promised in her ear, her braids tickling his nose. Short bursts of air over his arm told him she was laughing. Nthanda squirmed, unhappy.

"He say you the man that took out the Mdabe train depot. His bohss be tellin' him to watch out for you," Din informed. "His bohss ain' happy, Mistuh Kanda. No' happy t'all."

"I figured that," Kanda muttered.

Suddenly, Kanda saw something shift behind him, something tall with a splotch of green on it, and he thought to himself_, If she screws up, I'm skinning her._

Ellis, however, did a very neat job whacking the man in the patella with a rather heavy frying pan, cracking it and crumpling him in a screaming, crying pile.

It was at this moment that a rather familiar, idealistic young Comtesse decided to make her entrance, screaming and swinging the butt of a shot gun, straight through their camp. Needless to say, she was watched with varying degrees of amusement and disbelief. Once her 'charge' was completed, Lavinia stood near the coals of the fire, breathing hard and looking around at the mass of men on the ground.

"Did I get them?" she asked breathlessly, almost as if to reassure herself more than the people she was 'saving'.

"Yes, dear. You got them," Ellis said in a rather flat voice, taking Nthanda from Kanda. The baby clutched her and looked down at Vanya with blatant distrust. For such a young child, he emoted very well.

"Ah. Well, I knew they wouldn't be much of a match. I did play cricket for quite a while. I have a mean swing," Lavinia said imperiously, hoisting the shotgun up to her shoulder and, somehow, missing it, finding her face with it instead. She looked stunned for a moment before letting out a small whine and dropping the gun, pressing her hands to her face.

"Lavinia? Comtesse! Are you alright?"

Three servants emerged from the tall grass, all armed with shotguns that looked like they hadn't seen oil since Jonah's time. Somewhere, the Rhodesian ridgeback whined piteously, hiding behind Ellis' skirts. Kanda rolled his eyes, gripping Vanya tighter as she fought. She was _incredibly _strong in this state, but no match for his magic-enhanced thew.

Kanda growled at his captive, "I said, it'd be best if you'd _stay still."_

"No, I'm not alright! Good lord, that bloody hurts!" she whined, sitting on the ground and attempting not to cry. She had a rather large bruise on her forehead, and Ellis sighed to herself.

"Din, be sure to get the young lady a blanket or something. She'll catch her death. I'm sure we have some sort of salve in one of the bags," Ellis suggested, looking rather intimidating- if not for the green mask on her face and the dog with his head up her skirt.

"What's with the rat crap on your face?" Kanda asked bluntly, standing with Vanya in his grip.

"It is _not _rat crap, thank you! It is a rejuvenation cream that is supposed to give me back my suppleness," Ellis said defensively, shifting Nthanda on her hip.

"Yeah. Rat crap. And what are _you _doing here?" Kanda said, before Ellis could fire back a response. He jabbed a finger at Lavinia.

"I am your protector! Obviously you _need _protecting from all these rogues. You have no idea how dangerous Africa can be," Lavinia snorted prettily (just derisively enough to sting, but not enough to make her seem unladylike) as her servants attended to her wounds. Kanda rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"God, please tell me you're kidding," Kanda pleaded.

"I am going to travel with you to-... where _are _you going, anyways?" Lavinia asked, suddenly curious. Kanda remained mum, not wanting to give her the satisfaction of an answer, but Ellis just _had _to pipe in.

"Cairo."

"Cairo?! You plan on traveling all that way on foot? You're either mad or devilishly ambitious," Lavinia said, both incredulous and still very on board with the idea. Kanda had half-hoped it would scare her out of the whole thing.

Suddenly, there was a gleam in Lavinia's eye as she suddenly considered the ramifications of such a _long _trip. Her governess had always stressed the fact that the longer the window of opportunity stood open, the much more likely probabilities were to occur, and this was one _wide open _window. It should be more than enough to win over his heart! And she'd do it by earning it by merit that she already possessed! After all, who knew more about Africa than Lavinia, Comtesse de Chavigne?

While Lavinia was lost in a daydream of tramping across Africa with the dour Japanese man in nothing but her knickers and corset, Kanda turned his attention to his captive.

"Get me some rope. She'll bolt the minute I let go," Kanda said.

"Say again?" Lavinia said, suddenly worried and half-excited by the prospect of being tied up. Dear, he was more adventurous than she'd thought.

"Not _you. _Her," Kanda said, hiking his elbow and gagging Vanya. She was on her tiptoes, trying to keep up with Kanda's elbow. He was so much taller that he almost had to stoop to have her on her feet. Din had already procured a blanket and some rope, handing the blanket to Lavinia's servants (much to her disappointment) and tying up Vanya rather warily.

"Sorry, Miz Vanya, deah. I don' mean dis pers'nal, y'know?" Din sighed, pulling the rope tight into a rather complicated system of knots. Din frisked her for her knives, removing five from the folds of cloth he could see (he'd rather not touch the parts he couldn't- he was a gentleman), and he also removed a few spell tags as well just in case. He watched her the entire time, dark eyes following her rather mirthful black ones.

"She a Loa, mistuh Kanda," Din said, straightening after a while, keeping his voice low so that only Kanda could hear him.

"Loa?" Kanda asked. He was unfamiliar with the term.

"Sort of Vodun spirit. Say they the communicatahs wid Bon Dieu, the Good God, but I don' believe. God ain' that confusin'," Din muttered.

"Oh, I communicate with _Bon Dieu, _Dingane, just not as intimately as most think," Vanya said, her voice suddenly taking an odd, accented lilt. It was the first time she'd spoken, and quite in the literal sense seeing as her tongue was still a mess.

Kanda looked at Din, and they shared a look. Vanya had dropped the Russian accent all of a sudden in lieu of a West Indies accent, and Kanda let her drop to her knees when she was properly trussed up like a calf at an American rodeo. Kanda looked at his companions sourly.

"Get her out of here. Set up a tent for her or something. She'll get eaten at this rate. I hate filing paper work for civilian deaths," Kanda ordered Ellis.

"What, you just expect me to obey you like a lap dog?" Ellis asked, taken aback. Kanda gave her a deadpan look, giving her a once-over of her nightie, creamed face, and done-up hair. The mention of 'lap dog' was awfully fitting, considering her closest companion happened to be a rather large canine practically sitting on her feet.

"You're not exactly in a state to fight back and keep your dignity," Kanda muttered.

Ellis made a face at the samurai. "Well! Come, Nthanda, let us welcome that dear lass. Seeing as _someone _refuses to be a gentleman. Hmph!"

With that, Kanda turned his attention to the Loa sitting next to the burned-out campfire. Din was already relighting it, seeing as no one was going to be getting any sleep as it was.

"What are you here for?" Kanda asked. "Why are you occupying the pipsqueak?"

The Loa looked up, the new firelight dancing in her eyes in a way that put Kanda in mind of hell itself. He wouldn't doubt it if she came from that very place. She grinned at him, all white teeth against her inky black skin. Her eyes crinkled in a way that Vanya's never did, and the effect was disconcerting. The Loa started to laugh, a deep throaty, almost sensual chuckle. It made Kanda's skin crawl, and Din's face sobered as he stirred the fire. Kanda decided it wasn't worth it to play with something that might as well be a demon.

He lifted his sword up to the possessed CROW's neck, and he said, "Give me one reason why I shouldn't just remove your head where you sit."

The Loa pursed her lips jauntily, almost to say 'oh, how quaint; you're threatening me.'

"Because you wouldn't harm another hair of your partner's head, love," the Loa answered with a smirk, the rumbling, deep contralto turned into a sultry, gravelly sort of speech. "You don't hate her that much. Even you have a sort of justice."

Kanda stood there, considering her words, sword-tip underneath her chin now and pressing hard enough to make the skin stretch, but not break.

" 'S no good, Mistuh Kanda. Dey don't feel like we humans do. She don't care a wit for Miz Vanya," Din suggested, standing up with a hot stick in his hand. Kanda stared at the usually cheerful Finder and his serious expression, and Kanda removed the sword from the Loa's neck. The spirit seemed awfully pleased with itself as it shifted on its knees. Though Kanda looked down on the trapped spirit, it seemed to him in a way that _he _was the one on the ground.

"I must admit, you Exorcists are a handsome lot a people," the Loa admitted nonchalantly.

"Answer my question. What are you doing here?" Kanda asked. In the fire light, he could see the scarification tattoos on Vanya's skin stand out a stark white. This was the same being that had possessed Vanya when they'd been attacked at that train depot. What had she done? What was this thing, and what was it after?

The Loa pouted fully, a strange expression on the usually deadpan CROW.

"Fine. You take the fun outta everything. I'm here on loan. Trapped, really. Can't get out," the Loa admitted. "I been sealed here by some sorcerer or whatnot, done stuck me with the soul of a to-be-dead girl. She's dead, but not all the way yet. I'm the thing stopping that from happening. I'm fulfillin' a prophecy of some sort, help put the universe right for Bon Dieu, though not by my own will."

"Prophecy?" Kanda asked, sitting down in front of the Loa. Din nervously shifted his weight, holding the stick in both hands with a tense grip.

"Yes. About the boy-man who was king and now is not. He come to free the world from the unDeath that captured us since the Great Water. Moved through space and time just to join with the North peoples and them's battles. I dunno, I don't really care. I ain't seen no boy-man-king nowhere, so I'm just a little skeptical," the Loa spat, crossing her legs into a more comfortable position.

"UnDeath?" Kanda asked.

"You a cousin of a parrot?" the Loa quipped.

For that, Kanda suddenly put the tip of his sword on the inside of a single nostril, tugging in warning. The Loa gasped a little, but then it began to laugh.

"Not my body, 'member?" the Loa chuckled.

Kanda thought of this and took the sword-tip out of her nose, wiping it against a pant leg. He never took his eyes off the Loa.

"Explain from the beginning. Why is Vanya to-be-dead?" Kanda said bluntly, his curiosity getting the better of him.

"Explosion. She done almost left her body, but some sorcerer or somethin' dragged me with her soul into her body. Now we have to share, and it ain't comfortable," the Loa said, rolling its shoulders. "I'm the anchor. I ain't got a physical anchor, and she ain't got a spiritual anchor. We pull each other here, but if she die, I go free, and if I die, she die, you see? So maybe its win-win for me."

"And this is because of some... prophecy?" Kanda asked, not necessarily believing this. It seemed more like a fabricated tale from a wayward spirit that needed exorcising. For once, Kanda wouldn't mind having Allen around to purge the evil from the CROW with that nifty sword. He'd actually feel a little bad for killing Vanya if this spirit turned out to be dangerous. Of course, it wasn't like he'd lose sleep over it, but it would definitely leave a bad taste in his mouth.

**_It would bother you more than you think._**_  
><em>_  
>I don't remember asking for your opinion. <em>

**_Technically, your opinion is the one I should be asking for, isn't it?_**

The Loa slowly smiled.

"It helps that you're a very handsome man, Mister Kanda," the Loa said, its voice rolling like gravelly honey. Kanda felt disconcerted by the fact that it was still Vanya's voice saying these things.

"I'm not interested," Kanda answered back. The Loa shrugged noncommittally-

Kanda almost didn't see her move. The ropes suddenly fell off of her, cut by some invisible force, and the Loa was moving at that blindingly fast pace, no doubt to run away, only to be met with the burning end of a stick to the cranium. The Loa-possessed CROW crumpled to the ground, groaning and disoriented. Din stood triumphantly over her, holding something in his hand.

"Jus' cuz a Vodun priest decided to help our God don't mean you want to. But I can fix dat," Din said, hanging an iron crucifix on a rosary. The Loa cowered, almost crying as it covered its face.

"No, no, please... no, not his name, I can't bear to hear it, please..." the Loa pleaded. Din lowered the crucifix as Kanda watched in horror and fascination as the Loa grovelled at Din's feet.

"No, mastah, no, please, I'm a free spirit, mastah, a free spirit. Shaitan ain't my master, Shaitan-"

"Then who _is_ your massah, Loa? Who command you to be the guardian protectah of some boy-man-king who come and be the one to stop unDeath?" Din asked, kneeling over the keening, scrambling Loa who was immobilized upon the ground under the heavy burden of iron and crucifix.

"My massah be the Lord, the Lord of Heaven and Earth, but please, just let me go, I'm a free spirit, jus' a free spirit bound to some woman..." the Loa begged. "He command me ta protect 'im, got his angels over 'im, an' me and you and him, so he can stop the unDeath. 'S all I know, I promise, all I know..."

Din halted, looking down at the Loa with something like pity.

"You go back to where come from in Miz Vanya. You heal her up, you give her tongue back, and you stay sleepin'. You know th' authority undah whom I speak," Din said seriously. The Loa agreed heartily, fingers scrambling in the dirt. Din suddenly tapped her forehead with the crucifix, the barest touch, and the Loa gasped one final time before Vanya's skin went pale as paper, like the ink in her skin had leached into the ground underneath her.

Vanya stood up quickly, fighting ready, until she suddenly began to keel over from the brutal head wound she'd received. She held her head in her hands as Din steadied her and Kanda quickly got a few bandages and things from his bag.

"What... happened?" Vanya croaked, testing her healed tongue. Kanda felt awfully stupid once he realized that the bandages he'd retrieved were largely for nothing, considering the wound on her forehead was almost healed due to the unnatural abilities of the Loa.

"You were possessed," Kanda said bluntly.

Vanya's eyes widened, and she immediately dropped to her knees to start praying in Russian.

"No, no, no, you fine, Miz Vanya. I scared her off, see?" Din said, handing her the iron crucifix. The CROW stared at it with a look of disbelief, shaken. Kanda looked at Din, and the Finder gave a sheepish look as if to say 'I'll explain in a little while.'

"Now, you just go on off to bed, now, see? Go sleep some, you feel much bettah in the mornin'," the Finder suggested, leading the stunned CROW back to her tent.

Kanda watched her go, his eyes dark as he considered the ramifications of the event. In a lot of ways, this only complicated things. And Kanda felt a weight fall on him.

It was like grief.

* * *

><p>He got up early in the morning, as was his wont. The day had yet to truly start, and Kanda couldn't sleep as it was. She haunted his thoughts, a ghost amidst the musings that went through his mind. He'd let Ellis take Nthanda tonight, knowing the child would stay up as long as Kanda did. They didn't need him to be cranky for the next leg of the trip.<p>

Kanda stared out across the open grassland, this flat plain with nothing on it but a few acacia trees and the random gust of wind. It was almost eerie, the quietude. A fog had descended in the wee hours of the morning, and it put him ill at ease to think of what might be lurking in the dark, opaque grasses. Akuma had been few and far between. One of the good things about the open African wilderness was that after a while, the Akuma found it hard to come by prey on which to gain experience. They tended to stay close to mayhem, like carrion after a battle.

He looked into that darkness, and he knew that he needed something bigger than himself. They weren't even a third of the way there. This journey was so... so long, so terribly, terribly long. He could feel it looming over him as he thought about how they were going to get the funds to cross the continent. Nthanda was such a fragile little thing. He had no one on whom he could lean. If only she were here...

No. He refused to think that. She never had been to him. It was the lost trappings of a former mind. Yet... he couldn't shake it.

He heard the _hush hush _of moving grass, and he knew someone was also with him in this darkness. He felt a calm descend upon him as battle-readiness seemed to suddenly intrude upon his body, making his muscles tense as springs ready to unleash fury and blood.

She emerged from the grass, two knives in her hands. Her face was stolid, eyes blank and gray as slate. Her dark hair had grown, allowing her to bind it into a high bun. Her short stature made her no less imposing as she stared at him, her face flickering through something like apprehension and pity- for himself or her, he didn't know.

"Mister Kanda," she said politely, her voice noncommittal.

"Vanya," was all he said.

"I vould like somesing from jyou," she said quietly, her words specially formed around her newly healed tongue. She lowered her gaze, staring at the ground. Head still bowed, she looked up at the man.

Kanda found himself nearly scared of what she'd ask. The air seemed to freeze, tension pulling the mist taut as a harp string. In his mind, he could tell himself that he'd do what she asked, and he was almost certain of what she would request. But there was another part of him, one that had grown as of late, that wasn't sure if that request would make him bleed from his core, seeping around him into a wound that would never heal. He was torn as he stared down at the diminutive CROW in her black uniform.

"A spar," she said.

Almost imperceptibly, the samurai relaxed, chastising himself for even worrying. What was the matter with him? Would she have really asked such a thing from him?

"Your funeral," he said with a smirk, lifting his sword sheath.

For a moment, he could swear he saw a small smile flit across her face before she suddenly disappeared with a puff of fog the only telltale record of her flight. Kanda tensed, extending his hearing for the woman, just barely picking up the pitter-patter of tiny feet. He brought his sword up to his left, neatly blocking an attempted strike at his hip as she dashed underneath the sheath with acrobatic deftness. Kanda pivoted on his left foot, again avoiding a jab from the small woman. He ran backwards, putting space between him and her. She was probably one of the few people he could say was just as fast, if not faster, than himself.

And so it went, the battle that was a dance, the dance that was a battle. It was a back and forth weaving of movement, striking, dodging, and sweeping. Sinuously, they moved around each other like snakes, feet stirring the dirt, and the grass obscuring their view. It was as if they were playing a deadly game of hide-and-seek among the grasses, the soft _sh sh sh _like the lullaby of a warrior.

And if Kanda was honest with himself, he enjoyed the challenge.

There was a strange sort of etiquette to this sort of spar, this one-on-one code that both adhered to without ever knowing what that code was. Neither pulled dirty tricks against the other. There was just the simple joy of practice, move upon move upon move. Soon they were both breathing hard, but not breathing heavy. They had moved to a clearing underneath a spreading tree, and the very earliest glimmers of morning were showing.

They circled each other, and idly an expression came to Vanya's face as Kanda put one foot in front of other with deliberate slowness, his face focused and pensive.

"What are you thinking?" Kanda asked, and Vanya seemed surprised that he'd caught on to her sudden thought. She carefully allowed her face to go blank.

"I vas zinking how nice it vould be to see you on ze ground, and ze look on jyour face," Vanya said with a slight smirk, one of her few expressions.

And then, everything changed.

Just as the sun crested the horizon, the world took on a rosy tint of sunlight, and Kanda saw it in that moment.

In front of him, where Vanya stood, no, on _top _of Vanya, _over _Vanya, _in _Vanya, he could see _her. _The clean black uniform, pulled back hair, loving smirk.

_"I'd love to see you on the ground and that look on your face when you find yourself there." _

The tension he'd felt that first time fighting with her, so much like getting to know a person, except more intimate than conversation, less intimate than wasting the night. The air of expectation, hovering between him and her, he remembered it so clearly, like the reflection of his own face. He'd been taken aback, so in love with the tenacity, the willfulness, the sheer rawness of her resolve and courage.

And Vanya charged, seeing her opening-

But she was still there, encompassing the younger woman's body like an ephemeral sheet of memory, copying every move the CROW made, and in that moment, he hesitated in his confusion as he saw, finally, Vanya's face rather than _hers._

And the _agony _that followed seemed to be more than he could truly bear. Kanda's heart was small and tight, like a wound ball of twine that was only a few tugs short of snapping itself. It could only take so much in it at once, and so much confusion and heartbreak and long-lost feeling, or ghost of a feeling, for someone else, someone _the other one _had loved beyond reason, beyond logic, beyond life and death, was too much for this little heart and its fragility. It snapped with a resounding wave, like an explosion clearing away everything around it in that single instant.

Her knife connected with his cheek, drawing a small line of blood. Almost unconsciously, Kanda remembered their first spar, that first blood she'd drawn, and the association with that spar and the _other _first spar, the one that was important to the _other one _(he had to remind himself that- he was not him, and he'd never be him, and he was his own person, own feelings, own thoughts) drew unfortunate conclusions and a strange sense of loss mixed with jealousy. In a way, no one should ever take that place in him, but that was another life, another heart, and another woman.

His elbow connected with her face, a crunching noise resounding in the air. The morning glow was no longer a glow- it was a harsh, blindingly sharp radiance. The softness had gone away, leaving hard lines and broken fragments of things.

His fist connected with her kidney. She doubled over and rolled past him.

His foot connected with her head. She went down on the ground, quickly standing, albeit a little shakily.

Her knife slashed into a feint, and he grabbing her other, hidden yet moving hand, throwing his knee into her stomach as he pulled her into the hit.

She slid a foot behind his ankle, but he quickly yanked her wrist upwards, bending it into a position in which it was not able to move, and her trip lost force.

She suddenly planted her feet into his chest, lifting herself by a single hand, and she used him as a springboard, causing the wind to leave his lungs. He let go, and she fell to her feet some distance away. She skirted him for another, low hit, but his sword sheath suddenly clipped her ear, disorienting her.

Finally, he planted a foot in the side of her knee, causing her to fall before she could put herself in a steadier stance. She fell to the ground, and his foot was on her neck, sword pressed against the skin like a sweet metal kiss.

They were like that for several moments, frozen in a still life. She breathed hard, and Kanda could clearly see her face in profile, outlined by the dirt and the shadows cast by the sun. It was as if the world were trying to reassure him that she was _not _her. She was someone else, from another time and another place. And he realized what he had done only when he saw the blood dripping from her mouth and under her hairline, her hair loose and undone from exertion.

It takes quite a lot for Kanda to be surprised, and surprised he was when she suddenly said, "Thank jyou."

It took another moment for him to realize that, imperceptibly, he was shaking. He was so full of that almost jealous rage and heartbreak, yet what Vanya had said was 'thank you.'

He lifted his foot from her neck, and she slowly began to sit up, dusting herself with one hand. Her eyes were downcast, concentrated on her task.

"Why?" he asked, trying to keep the waver out of his voice.

"Jyou vill do vat it takes, Mister Kanda," she said simply, looking at him. "And I thank jyou."

"Babuu!" a small, imperious voice suddenly said from the edge of the clearing. They looked, and Vanya snorted as Nthanda shakily walked side by side with the dog, who was happily panting next to him.

Kanda felt a spike of some emotion he couldn't quite pin. Shame? Panic? Worry? He'd never been good at his emotions. He'd never truly used them, honestly, but knowing that Nthanda had watched that fight, seen his brutality with someone Nthanda no doubt considered something like a mother or caretaker...

Vanya stiffly picked Nthanda up and cooed to him in Russia, and Nthanda wound his hand in her hair. The dark baby suddenly waved a hand at Kanda, insistent on his presence as if he were a little prince demanding the audience of someone of low birth. Kanda gave him a deadpan look. He was being ordered by a _baby._

"No," Kanda said simply. The dog barked at him as if to mark the baby's point, a goofy grin on his face, and Kanda stared at the sky as if to ask for guidance before acquiescing.

"What the devil do you want, you little fart bag?" Kanda muttered as he bent down to Nthanda's level with a grumpy expression. Nthanda grabbed a strand of his hair and played with it a little bit, Vanya looking at Kanda with a perplexed look and Kanda rolling his eyes.

And then, Nthanda yanked hard on both of their strands of hair, bonking their heads together with a massive '_clunk!'_

In that moment of pain, it was if all of Vanya's thoughts roiled in his mind, the remembered terror of fighting him (she'd been terrified of fighting him?), the derision and grudging acceptance, the strange symbiosis she felt with him (which he tried hard to ignore, because he felt it himself), and the horrible, keening, longing sigh of grief that seemed to play over her thoughts like the song of a banshee long after someone has passed.

The fight came back, that painfully stolid sense of duty that he hated for its blind faith and unquestioning loyalty. He felt his muscles move in time with her own as she had feinted and counterfeinted against him, planning just far enough ahead. He noticed her dependence on her momentum and her amount of space, cataloging it later. But he could also feel the grim humor about this as a preview for a later battle, one that's outcome would be much more... final. She had been testing him.

Memories, random bits and pieces of glorified past experiences, flashed in his mind of a little house in crowded Moscow, the ticking noises of clocks and toys, the magnificent opalescence of the royal family's palace with their onion topped towers. And then, the blood, the killing, the stealing, the raids, the terror...

And he knew that she'd taken from him, too. He could see it in her face, and they immediately parted, somehow finding themselves at opposite ends of the clearing. She was breathing hard, as was he. A red mark denoted their points of contact, and Nthanda babbled at them both as if he were teaching them a valuable lesson. The dog whined in between the two, looking back and forth at them.

"Who do jyou think jyou are, Kanda?" Vanya asked, her face closed off.

All he could do is stare back at her.

"Oh, toodle-loooo~! Loves!" a familiar, old voice shouted from beyond the grass. Ellis managed to beat her way through the grass with a parasol (the likes of which Kanda could only guess where she'd managed to sequester it without his knowing of its existence), and she stared at the two heavily-breathing teenagers.

"My goodness, have I interrupted something? Ah, well, it doesn't matter, as it is. I was going to interrupt as it was. We have things to discuss! After me, darlings!" Ellis said imperiously, whacking the grass with her parasol, causing several large locusts to suddenly shoot out for their hiding places. She yelped and then quickly composed herself, smoothing her ruffled figurative feathers.

Kanda and Vanya looked at each other one last time before finally following the woman through the grass.

* * *

><p>"How do you bear to live in such squalid conditions?! Goodness!" Lavinia complained from her perch on a piece of wood around the fire. Her servants were off fixing her tent, and Din was hunting for dinner while Ellis fixed up the fire from the night before and readied the kitchen utensils. And of course, Vanya was pinning her bugs as per her habit, while Nthanda and the dog played in the dirt.<p>

Kanda narrowed his eyes at her from across the fire, fighting the twitching building under his eyelid. He couldn't believe that someone so... _annoying _existed.

No, he couldn't say that. Lavi was still prancing across the earth with his high-pitched, obnoxious voice.

"We're sorry to bruise you're flawless skin," Kanda muttered under his breath, and Lavinia primped herself almost unconsciously.

"You're excused," Lavinia sighed, and Kanda reached for his sword. Hopefully she'd _excuse _him if her hair suddenly fell of her head...

"Tea?" Ellis interrupted, before Kanda could suddenly deprive her of her luscious locks. Lavinia threw her red hair over a single shoulder with a toss of her majestic head, and she smiled wide, showing a prodigious set of pearly whites.

"Why yes, I'll take a cup," she said, imperiously (but not so much to be _haughty_, for that would've been crude).

"Good. I've been meaning to get rid of yesterday's set," Ellis said nonchalantly, and Lavinia's face fell as she realized she was going to be given some rather aged tea. However, it was too late to politely refuse, as Ellis had gone off to fetch the tea, and the young Comtesse squirmed in her seat on a hard log. Vanya was busy pinning bugs to a cork board next to her, and Kanda watched as Lavinia warily looked at what the CROW was doing. Vanya stared at the young Comtesse as she slowly pushed a pin into a shiny blue-green beetle. The little insect fruitlessly flailed its legs as it was impaled, and Lavinia's already pale skin suddenly drained of what little color it had.

Kanda looked away, trying to hide a smirk. After the debacle that had led to both the Comtesse and the CROW being kidnapped, Vanya had shown little love for the young lady.

Nthanda sat at his feet, playing his little set of congo drums (which needed fixing- the drumskin on one of them was beginning to tear). The dog sat next to him as was his wont, and he looked up at Kanda pleadingly as the samurai tore himself a piece of salted beef. He gave a harsh look to the dog, and the Rhodesian ridgeback hung his head, still looking at the samurai. Kanda scowled out towards the grass, and the dog finally seemed to give up.

A piece of salted beef landed at the dog's feet, and he snatched it with gusto, his tail thumping the ground and sending a whirlwind of dust.

Ellis finally came back with a full tea set, which begged the question of where she'd been keeping that tea set, and she laid it out on the makeshift table made of a cut log. After much badgering, Ellis had convinced Kanda to cut part of a thick, dead tree to create what was effectively a cutting board and a table all at once. Kanda had not appreciated using Mugen for such carpenter tasks, something he considered much too menial for a good blade, but Ellis was plenty pleased with the result. It was, unfortunately, too heavy to take with them, or else she would've polished it and made it look like a respectable piece of furniture.

Of course, concerning her habit of hiding little bits of civilization in random places, Kanda wouldn't be surprised if the same circle of trunk showed up again at some other time.

"Now, it is time to be talking about the real reason I have called this little, oh... what is it that the American's call it? A poe- oh?"

"I thought it was Pee-wow," Lavinia offered.

"No, no, it's, ah... peu-woe."

"I belief jyou mean Powvow."

"No, that can't be right, there's no 'v'."

Kanda couldn't take the mangled use of American English slang.

_"Powwow._ Get on with it," Kanda growled, pointing his sword sheath at Ellis.

"Why yes, I believe he does have a point. Do continue, as my skirts cannot protect my behind from this horrid seat for much longer," Lavinia complained as she sipped her newly acquired tea. She almost hiccuped a little as the very bitter concoction passed down her throat, and she pressed her lips together as she began to put the tea cup down_._

"Interesting that you should say, considering you are the subject matter," Ellis stated, reading a pot of water she'd gotten earlier in the day. Had Lavinia been enjoying her cuppa, she would've spit it back into her cup with mortification, but she was saved that indecency. However, it appeared she could not escape some sort of overly dramatic display of incredulity, seeing as she dropped the tea cup loudly instead, putting a rather large chip in it.

Ellis gave the woman a flat look, and Lavinia delicately put the cup back on the 'table'. Kanda almost rolled his eyes at the undue amount of hostility Ellis gave the Comtesse in response to the abuse to her good crockery.

"Jyou're in for it now," Vanya muttered under her breath as she took out another pin and tried to decide where to place her next acquisition.

"Our topic for the evening is whether or not to allow you to journey with us to our destination," Ellis stated. "We are embarking on a rather dangerous trek, and it would not do to have a political ally suddenly offed. We wouldn't be able to explain ourselves to the proper authorities either- the Black Order isn't keen on sorting out political unrest and dissent. You've already seen the creatures we are up against, and yet you're still here. I do not believe you truly understand the ramifications of this particular sojourn."

Kanda watched Ellis as the older woman diced desert vegetables for soup, her acuity nearly as keen as Kanda himself with a good blade, though it seemed her expertise only extended to plants. He stared at Lavinia, the young Comtesse gaping like a fish.

"Well! I had thought you would be rather glad of my presence on your little-little-your _trip. _I had it in my mind to protect you besides, seeing as you obviously don't know what _you _are up against either," Lavinia continued, sipping daintily from her chipped teacup. Ellis rolled her eyes heavenward, in unison with Kanda, Vanya, and even the dog. Nthanda merely continued with his drumming, paying no mind to the interplay of wills.

"Believe you me, dearest, I think we have everything under control," Ellis drawled as she stirred the vegetables into the soup.

"What we're saying is- _go home,_" Kanda stated outright. That woman needed to learn to cut to the chase.

"B-but... I can help you! I have political acumen-"

Kanda hated to see what a rebel would do when they saw a pretty young white girl trying to spew politics at them while waving handkerchief.

"-and I can, uh, I can shoot-"

Perhaps a _tree_. On accident.

"- and I have survival skills!"

All those present stared at her with unabashed dryness. Lavinia squirmed once more in her seat. She held up two fingers, a width apart.

"A little. A little bit of survival skills."

It was quiet, nothing but the rustle of grass and the _'dong dong' _of Nthanda's drum.

"Go home," Kanda merely stated again.

Lavinia pouted, crossing her arms, and stood up indignantly. She stood in front of the fire, her eyes alight and her hair blown back by the wind off the flames, and she stated boldly, "I will have you know that I am coming with you on this trip! I... I am... I am in need of a lesson! You said so yourself. Now, as a Comtesse I demand that lesson be given to me, through trials and tribulations! I will not be spoiled any longer, and I_ will not _be turned away, do you hear me? I will grow strong, and the only way to grow strong is through hardship and adversity, and I have found that it practically follows you people with your-your- chipped crockery-"

"_You're _the one who chipped my crockery," Ellis breathed under a sigh.

"- and your horrid seats and your ghastly rebels and all else that God has created to torment humans of such fair disposition as I! You told me yourself that I'm a sick, spoiled little child who needs to be taught a lesson, even!"

Both heads turned to Kanda, and he looked at them with daring, black expression that brooked no questioning. There would be words.

"So if _you _are going to be the one to open my eyes to my current predicament, then perhaps you should _also _be the one to explain to me where I am in the wrong and correct myself. It is only your duty to do so for your Comtesse, that she may be as refined, elegant, and strong as she needs to be," Lavinia finished with a stamped foot, and it was silent for a few more moments as the three digested her words.

And then suddenly, the young Comtesse accidentally caught the corner of her rather frilly dress on fire as she was standing much too close, and she began to scream and stamp on the small flame attempting to climb up her dress. While she was attempting to control the small wisp of flame that was gaining a bit of territory, Ellis motioned for both warrior to follow her to her tent. As she led them, Ellis yelled behind her, "Stop, drop, and roll, dear, it's basic fire safety! Just don't roll in the dry grass, all right? There you go love, walk it off!"

Ensconced in the tent, Ellis let loose.

"You told her all that? _You told a Comtesse where she could shove it?"_

"How was I supposed to know she was going to follow us?! Most sane people leave! It was true anyhow, I don't lie."

"Good lord, Kanda, if she'd ever gotten wind of that to her father- do you know who her father is? The Comte of Chavigne, you-you...you clodhead!"

"That means about as much as a sack of pig's manure to me."

"Ve should probably deal vith ze zituation at hand," Vanya sighed, rubbing her nose bridge. The two fuming hotheads finally began to simmer, and they looked at each other.

"Do we keep her?" Ellis asked.

"No," Kanda stated.

"No," Vanya concurred.

"Yes," Din chimed in, and the other two stared at the Finder that seemed to have materialized in the tent, with uncooked dinner at that.

"You don't even know what we're voting on," Kanda grumbled, and the Finder laid his catch (three pheasants and a rabbit) near Ellis's bedroll before the woman could actually gripe at him for getting their blood on her sheets.

"Yes, Mistuh Kanda, ash'lly, I do, and I seh we keep her," Din stated wisely, crossing his arms. He pointed to Kanda.

"You saved her life. Her life belohngs to you. An' you try to teach her a lesson, so now she is _your_ problem. She just gonna follow us anywehs," Din reasoned.

"Dingane has a fery good point," Vanya agreed. "Ze girl is like a dog vith a bone."

"We're not taking her with us. I'm not taking civilians."

"_I'm _a civilian," Ellis argued.

"You're old. No one cares if you die."

"Well, excuse me! If that's the case, I'll have her go with. She can crack a hundred pieces of good Wedgwood for all I care. As long as she manages to turn your hair gray, I'll be fine!" Ellis huffed, snatching up the pickings for dinner. "Now if you will excuse me."

And with that, she went out the tent flap. Though it is not possible to slam a tent flap, she seemed to give the impression none the less. Vanya watched, her expression as close to amused as she could get, while Din grinned and Kanda continued to boil like a pot over high heat.

"Vanya?" Din asked.

For a moment the CROW deliberated.

"On other hand, I see no problem vith zis. She dies, she dies. She lives, we get ze better ruler. Win win," Vanya said. In reality it was obvious she and Ellis were in much the same frame of mind concerning Kanda, seeing as she glanced with an almost triumphant smirk at the samurai.

"I'm the leader of this little band of idiots. I don't need another one," Kanda seethed to the back wall, and Din hid a wheezing laugh behind a cough. The Finder walked out of the tent and suddenly began to guffaw, a bright loud sound. Kanda barreled to the door to see what was the commotion, only to see Nthanda desperately trying use his drum set to console a rather distraught, soaked, and half-naked Lavinia who was sitting next to what was amounting to be a prodigious grass fire behind her. Kanda slapped a hand over his eyes as Nthanda babbled to Lavinia, slapping her thigh as the Comtesse dissolved.

"I tink Nthanda made up our minds for us, Misteh Kanda," Din snickered.

"She is _not coming with!"_

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **It's out, it's out, it's finally out! This chapter is extra long to make up for the lost time it took to write this (and it's finals week- hehe, studying, what studying?), and I hope that it was all you hoped for and more! This is one of those extra meaty chapters, and it even has plot points (gasp!). As you all know (of course of course) my schedule is EXTREMELY erratic ( I apologize so much, I know some of you waited almost a year at one point). That doesn't seem to be changing. HOWEVER. I hope to get back to writing shorter bits (more slice of life type stuff) now and again for this, but that doesn't mean the adventure will get any less adventure-y.

For the recognition! To my reviewers:

karina001 (my wonderful, wonderful beta!): I'm glad you've got that good insight. ;) You're great at making connections. I'm soooo happy that you gave me such a meaty review, especially considering it was a long chapter. Hope you'll enjoy this one! It was even longer than the last one... You've been oh so patient and I know you were chomping on the bit for this one.

BloodStainsOnMyKisses: Glad you thought it was so cute! Hopefully you'll still enjoy it, even when the cute parts are a little less evident (like this one).

DGrayman GRL: I see you caught on to that, didn't you? I was hoping someone would get it. Hopefully this made you feel a little better. :)

Kai-Chan94: Huh, I can sort of see where that would go- Kanda vs. Allen suddenly turning into a free for all with a baby somehow coming out on top. It would make for an interesting story... *eye twinkle* And I've never heard THAT description for the little baby, LOL. Cute little terd indeed.

jasdevi's secret sissy: Poor Kanda indeed. He is, namely, Katsura Hoshino's whipping boy. I like to think she'll make it up to him at some point.

Nano: Glad this got your attention! It's always nice to hear that someone couldn't help BUT review a story. And what happened to Allen in America? He ended up chasing fog lights in a certain mountain range of America because they were thought to be Innocence phenomena. I'd thought of making a sort of slice-of-life series out of that one, actually, but I never got around to it. It's still on the table, seeing as Allen's a character I have yet to expand on. Though right now he's _actually _in another story in this timeline called Chasing After The Wind (which I am still writing! Just... it's slow going).

Now for the members of the subscriber army! Our new members are jasdevi's secret sissy, goldenwings57, hkyadte, graveMonera, nevertheless im a ninja (neat name), Sevil33, and .

And almost every one from the subscriber army double dipped into the favoriteer army, with one exception: Letah. Happy to have you!

Now for the discussion! _Are you happy that Lavinia is being tacked on to the band? What do you make of Kanda's recurring dreams? Would you like to see more of Nthanda, or is his point of view disorienting and/or boring? Would you like to have other canon characters added to the story at some point? Was this chapter just too ridiculously long? What sort of feeling do you get from the story: rollercoaster ride or a steady, plodding pace? What made you laugh? Which relationships do you like out of this story (it need not be romantic- paternal, friendly, or otherwise are encouraged, as there are more relationships that exist besides the romantic)?_

That's all I've got for now. God bless you, and Merry Early Christmas!


	15. I Once Was Lost

He held him on his shoulders, a bundle of logs under one arm with the other holding the tyke by his thigh. Kanda shifted the logs digging into his arm as he trudged through the brush, lost in his thoughts and silently fuming. Behind him, he could hear Lavinia attempt to keep up in those ridiculous shoes. He wasn't paying attention to that, though, as he loudly plowed through the brush. Animals scattered in the wake of his pent fury, urged to escape by both instinct and common sense. His feet made crunching noises against the twigs on the ground, and his thighs were brushed by the long grass in wide strokes, as if with nature's thick-bristled brush.

"Dear... dearest would you... please wait a... wait a moment!"

He paid her no heed, his mind still stuck on a single track of thought, his previous conversational engagement.

He and Ellis had a... disagreement.

* * *

><p>"We go by sea," Ellis stated imperiously. They were at the borderlands of Mozambique by now, close enough that they had to decide for themselves a plan of action so that they could purchase the supplies necessary.<p>

Kanda flung a string of curses. "We're going by land. I don't care how much we've got to shell out. The Order'll reimburse you anyways."

Din and the dog watched with rabid fascination as the two continued to argue, as if it were a Wimbledon tourney between two grandmasters, considering Kanda's scathing amount of colorful language and Ellis' scalding wit.

"We are _not _going to go by land, you dolt! Do you realize the danger of going by land?-"

"Do you realize the danger going by _sea? _At least on land you can run from the Akuma instead cower in a tin can headed to the bottom of the ocean!"

Vanya ignored the fight going on, pinning bugs near the fire. She'd apparently acquired several more new and bright species of beetle, and her corkboard was approaching full. Every now and again, she'd look up at Kanda and Ellis, notice the former's heated glare and the latter's red face, and shake her head before returning to her hobby.

"Oh, but at least there isn't much _chance _of attack on the ocean! Here, we're being bombarded every other week by some new militia intent on taking out their government angst on us innocent civilized folk!"

"Maybe if you didn't _run so slow because of your fat a-"_

"That is NOT how you speak to a lady, young man!"

"I don't see a lady. I see a _broad _who's never stepped foot on a battle field."

The argument was escalating enough that Din tentatively touched his gun while the Rhodesian ridgeback slowly hung his head and looked on with a worried whine. The three servants Lavinia had brought peeked out of their enormous, gaudy tent (it was striped pink and gold and stood a good ten feet tall, and it was a wonder they managed to pack it, much less drag it halfway across South Africa). Lavinia, of course, was asleep, as it turned out that trying to stir her prior to noon was a wasted effort unless water and a sword were involved.

"You don't know what sort of experiences I've had, and it would behoove you to listen to your elders!"

"Just because you've got a head of gray hairs doesn't make you the paragon of wisdom. _We go by land." _

_"Sea. You're going to kill us." _

_"Land. I'm not going to drown for your mistakes!"_

_"Sea! Do you want to be captured by a band of marauders and Akuma? Do you?!"_

_"**LAND.** I am the the leader! I make the decisions!"_

_"**You don't even care about him, do you!?"**_

It was deathly silent, nothing but the sound of the bugs in the woods far off. A herd of grazing antelope had raised their heads from their spot, staring at the camp in trepidation. The two were standing almost toe to toe, Kanda almost half a foot taller than Ellis, looking down at her. Though his face didn't betray his emotion, he could feel something like a knife edging itself closer to what would have been his heart, if that space wasn't so empty.

Ellis was breathing heavily, glasses almost skewed, her hair fastidiously kept up in a bun. The wrinkles on her face were more pronounced when she frowned, and boy had a frown taken up residence on her face. Her eyes were burning with indignation and hurt pride.

"Do you know what sort of _strain _you've put on the child? He's ten months old, for God's sake. He can't take an extra month of travel through the plain on your back. You'll take the chance of being attacked by the Akuma and men, but the more tired you are, the more likely it is that _he will die _because of negligence or bad luck. And you'll only have yourself to blame, _young man,_" she spat at him, huffing at him, her eyes hooded and her demeanor suddenly icy.

For a moment, he slipped. His eyes flickered to Nthanda, playing in the dust and looking a little travel worn, a little bit down. Some days were better than others. Today was one of the baby's cranky days- he'd been fussier than usual, and he had a bad case of diarrhea. He refused to wear clothes, though that wasn't new, and they could only convince him to wear a very small shirt and cloth diaper with much sweets-bribing.

Kanda pressed his lips together, gathering his composure, too bullheaded to consider the option... and perhaps, just a mite fearful of whether her comments were right.

"We go by land," he grumbled_, _glaring intently at Ellis. His sword was suddenly at the tip of her nose, hovering mere centimeters away.

To her credit, she didn't even blink.

"And never think I can't finish my mission," he said quietly, almost inaudibly, his eyes never leaving her face as he sheathed the sword and walked towards Nthanda. He scooped up the child, and Nthanda made a feeble attempt to reach for the ground and squirm away. Kanda ignored his distaste for being manhandled.

"Din, go and get the princess out of bed. We're going to collect wood. Fire's almost out," Kanda brusquely demanded.

Din, who'd been polishing his gun as he'd listened to the exchange, sighed through his nose as he stared at the buffed wood on his gleaming rifle. He glanced at the dog, and the dog whined piteously, hiding under his legs as Ellis banged around with the kitchenware. Din looked over to Vanya, who also met his gaze, and she shook her head_. __No use getting into it. _

Din got up, almost feeling as if dust was drifting off him, and he headed towards 'the princess's' tent. On his way, he grabbed a pail.

* * *

><p>Nthanda fussed at Kanda, slapping at his head. Kanda winced, more out of surprise than pain, and he realized that he was holding on to Nthanda's leg rather tightly. He lightened up a little, shifting the mass of wood under his other arm. He'd been gripping that tightly, too, bright red marks denoting the topography of the wood.<p>

"Could you... perhaps... just... _wait, please!" _

Kanda looked behind him with a long-suffering look at the woman he was leaving in the dust.

She was carrying maybe three sticks. At the most. And she seemed to be very out of breath. Her hair was tussled to the point of messy, and her cheeks were ruddy red from 'exertion'. She was at least five yards behind him, trying to gingerly drag the sticks without bruising or scraping her hands. She obviously wanted to continue helping and proving her worth, but goodness gracious if she hadn't complained the entire time about it. There had been several times where Kanda had entertained the idea of picking her up, setting her high in a tree, and then collecting the wood on his own.

He had had no intention of letting her down, either.

"If you can't keep up, that's your fault. Next time don't wear a ballgown to the forest," Kanda sniffed, turning around and continuing towards camp.

Lavinia looked down at her gown (it was one of the few things she'd packed and she'd hoped that by some happenstance to be at a ball while _also _running into her pri- er, her poor friend), to find that the hem was frayed beyond recognition, the color had gone from a rather nice burgundy to dirt brown, and her walking slippers (she refused to wear such ugly things as ... _boots)_ were now muddy sheaths protecting her feet from the dirt, but _not _from the sticker patches.

When she looked up, Kanda had already advanced nearly fifty paces, and she made a small noise and strove to catch up to the man.

Kanda stared stolidly ahead, thinking on the things that had transpired at the camp. No one had dared make a case against either person. They knew better than to get between Ellis and Kanda when they were in heated debate. While Vanya and Kanda had reached _some _sort of understanding (especially after _the incident_) to stay away from each other and avoid contact, Ellis and Kanda had no such demilitarized zone between them. Arguments had become frequent as the days on the road stretched on into what seemed like infinity. It had been a long time since they'd seen an actual town, or a _bath _for that matter.

"Ngabababuplllllu!" Nthanda burbled on his shoulders, and the young boy took fistfuls of Kanda's hair in his hands and _pulled. _

Kanda shouted a rather prodigious curse, causing Lavinia to blush raucously, and he snapped, "What?!"

The baby frowned and started to cry, still yanking on Kanda's hair. Kanda felt something warm on his neck, and his head seemed to sink in disgusted horror.

This baby... did _not... _just...

The smell said otherwise.

Kanda hung his head, trying desperately to keep from flinging this _child _in a tree- Couldn't this kid teleport- Couldn't he have- What in the h- was he going to- He was so angry, he couldn't even think in words, not Chinese, not English.

Lavinia watched as the Japanese exorcist seemed to battle with his own twitchy inner demons, and she caught a whiff of the smell coming from Nthanda. She dropped the sticks and covered her nose and mouth with a loud, disgusted noise.

"Was that _you?"_ she questioned incredulously.

Kanda's head turned like a squeaky, rusty hinge to glare at her, eye a-twitch and all. Nthanda continued to cry and wail and pound on his head.

_"No."_

Lavinia made a face at Nthanda, and Kanda dropped the wood he was carrying, took the child off his shoulders, and carefully set him down as if he were made of glass.

And indeed, a rather large brown mark was on the back of his shirt and... lord, was it in his _hair _too... and... oh, that was his last _clean _shirt...

"Go to camp. Take the wood with you. If you don't take _all _of it, _I will murder you_, _slice by slice. _Is that clear?" Kanda said through clenched teeth. Nthanda was up and walking, trailing... gooily to Kanda, crying and yanking on his pant leg. Lavinia thought it best not to say anything. Even _she _knew better than to say anything.

Hastily, she scurried around him, dragging the sticks with her. Though she had no doubt this man would clearly never hurt her (a true gentleman would never hurt a lady!), she understood he was... stressed at the moment and said things that perhaps he didn't truly mean.

Of course, it never hurt to be too careful.

* * *

><p>Kanda waded into the river, having dressed down to nothing but his boxers. He carried Nthanda at arms' length, staring at the young boy and the golden circle in the middle of his chest. Nthanda's eyes were big, black, and water-y, though he tried hard to keep a dignified pout. Kanda only gave him a rather tired glare as the two of them made their way into the stream.<p>

It was hardly deeper than waist deep, but that didn't mean Kanda wasn't nervous. He had removed his sword as well as his clothes, though he was sure water exposure wouldn't cause the sword to rust as it wasn't actually metal. Still, he felt more naked without the sword than without the clothes. Its absence left him feeling powerless and a bit lonely, honestly. The sword was a part of him, as much as his hands were a part of him or his feet or his eyes. It was his purpose for existing, after all- if not for it, he would've just been a dead body on the battlefield, not worth picking up and 'refurbishing' as he liked to morbidly joke to himself.

The water itself made him antsy. He couldn't swim and he'd never felt the desire to swim. On one mission, Lavi had thought it a funny prank to attempt shoving him into a lake. The redhead found his face submerged under the water where Kanda held it there for nearly two minutes before Bookman's insistence that he not kill his apprentice persuaded Kanda to allow the redhead to enjoy air again. Lavi had never tried another trick like it again.

This was part of the reason he had resented Ellis' proposal to take a boat. On a boat, Kanda was powerless. He had a weakness that surrounded him on every side, waiting to be exploited. It was so much more likely that he would die on a boat, falling into the water and unable to claw his way back out. On land, things were much simpler. He could always regenerate from a missing foot, a torn ligament, several broken bones, _half a destroyed torso. _But if he fell into the water, that was it. There was no coming back- to his knowledge. For all he knew, he could continue to regenerate and drown, regenerate and drown, unable to escape the cycle until somehow he managed to fight his way to the surface.

Which was unlikely to happen.

Even the soft undertow of this little stream sent little jitters of disconcert through him, like centipedes crawling beneath his skin.

Nthanda seemed to share his distaste for water, for the minute he began to lower the kid into the water, he immediately squirmed and pulled up his butt away from the stream, and Kanda glared and dunk the child.

Nthanda wailed, and Kanda sighed, softly submerging the baby into the stream. The kid hadn't ever had a bath in anything more than ankle deep, so this was probably a shock to the poor boy. The dark skinned baby was still hiccuping, but he was now merely pouting at Kanda, obviously unhappy but experimenting tentatively as he slapped the water with his chubby hands. He frowned, making more splashes, his face transforming from distrustful to amazement.

"There. It won't kill you," Kanda muttered, working off the boy's diaper and shirt. He'd somehow _pooped _up the neck of his shirt, and Kanda wasn't entirely sure how. He managed to unbutton it one-handed, and he tossed it to the shore, deciding he would deal with it later. The diaper went on a tree branch that was stuck in the mud, gently washed by the flow.

Kanda dunked Nthanda up to his chest several times in the hopes that most of the poop would go away, making sure to stay upstream of the kid, but unfortunately some of it was awfully... stubborn. Kanda had dealt with soiled diapers plenty of times on this trip, but he hadn't had to mess with _this. _Kanda sighed, and he finally began washing Nthanda. Nthanda was stoically ignoring Kanda, slapping the water at Kanda and overall making a fuss over the whole process.

"Stop-hey- you're getting my face wet!" Kanda demanded, and Nthanda blew a raspberry. Kanda stared for a moment.

Now where had he learned that? Must've been Vanya, because _he _sure hadn't taught him.

After Kanda was sure that all vestiges of... distasteful material had been washed away, Kanda was willing to hold the babe in his arm rather than out in the water. Nthanda looked at Kanda with curiosity, touching his bare skin and slapping it with a wet hand. He especially stared at the odd tattoo spread out across his shoulder, the black ink as fresh as the day it had been applied. Kanda wondered if Nthanda could sense the magic in the tattoo, but he doubted it.

With one hand, he washed himself, internally wincing as he realized that his hair had also taken some of the attack. He sighed, and he put Nthanda on shore.

"Stay," he ordered, and Nthanda babbled for a bit before flopping down on his bum, idly picking up a stick and examining it.

Kanda went to wash his hair when he heard the sound of foliage being brutally abused. He looked up abruptly, hair smothering his face, as he put two and two together.

He cursed vehemently, hurrying to rush out of the water and throw on something before that hell of a woman stampeded in on him in nothing but shorts. He was worried she might suddenly melt into a puddle if she caught sight of him before pouncing after a recovery. He'd rather not have to beat anybody with Mugen, but that didn't mean he wasn't above it either.

"Kanda! KANDA! KANDA KANDA KANDA!"

Her shrill screams were not the screams of a woman looking for a mate. They were the screams of someone terrified out of their mind.

Of course, anything could terrify _her, _all things considered, be it a gnat or a monstrous demon. He didn't have high hopes.

That was, of course, until he noticed the smoke curling along the horizon as he was shoving on his pants. He delayed zipping them, staring in horror as he thought of the ramifications. Either a fire had started or...

**Never let the sun go down on your anger. And never leave an argument unfinished. **

The thought was unwanted, uncalled for... and true. His heart raced as he tried to guess the direction of the camp, his mind racing. Nthanda was wandering around naked, waving a stick as if it were a scepter, unaware of the chaos that may be ensuing. However, something happened that scared Kanda as he watched the boy: Nthanda dropped the stick and turned to stare into the forest and plains beyond with this long stare. And the boy looked at Kanda with this strange look-

"KANDAAAA!" Lavinia screeched, bursting through the trees. Her hair was an absolute wreck, stuck with twigs and leaves and ash, her face an ugly, scrunched expression of horror. It was obvious something had happened from the state her dress was in, splattered with something dark (it wasn't blood, it wasn't blood, he had to tell himself that it couldn't be blood, just something else like wine or oil or-), shoes missing, and the scores of small cuts on her face. They were not the effects of running through the forest, but shrapnel marks.

Lavi bore those same marks as healed scars. Kanda knew what they looked like.

Tears streamed down her face as she suddenly collapsed on him, clinging and sobbing incoherently. Kanda attempted to make sense of the mishmash of noises coming out of her mouth, but he didn't understand a word (mostly because she wasn't _saying _words). He finally took her by the shoulders and held her at arm's length.

"Breathe," Kanda commanded, his voice stern.

Lavinia managed to sob in a breath, only to dissolve again and point back into the trees.

"The-the-the _thing _att-t-tacked us a-a-and it-it's _c-coming back!_" she managed to wheeze, pointing beyond the trees. Kanda stared at the foliage with a stoic look, though his mouth was set in a tight line. He snatched his sword from where he'd set it, and he pointed to Nthanda, who was still staring at the forest intently.

"Grab him and run," he ordered. "Across the river. It's waist deep. You'll make it."

Lavinia seemed shocked into silence finally, blinking in trepidation. She looked with horror, first to the child (who was covered in a fine layer of mud) and then to the river (which was not the cleanest river in Africa.

"I-I can't g-g-go in there!" she sobbed indignantly.

There was a suddenly crash as several trees fell, and Lavinia bolted, screaming, and scooped up Nthanda without further ado, making excellent headway into the river. Kanda tensed as he watched the trees part, a large Level Three nearly four meters tall. Lavinia had had good reason to be afraid, because this thing looked _fearsome. _

It had several eyeballs peering out from behind its spiky helm, the top spikes forming a sort of crown. A strange kind of skin stretched across its chest, back, and arms like armor, stitched together. Its chest was open, a ball floating inside of it, etched with strange writing. It was less armored down its spindly legs, something Kanda noted, and it stood straight, staring at Kanda with those creepy, floating eyes.

"Exorcist. We meet for the last time," the Akuma stated in a breathy whisper.

"Sorry. Don't recall you," Kanda quipped back, activating Mugen quickly. He knew he wouldn't have much time to attack. For some reason, it had alerted him first, rather than attack straight off.

"No- but that does not change this will be the _last _time we meet," the Akuma chuckled darkly through it's toothy grin.

An ear splitting ringing struck the air, and Kanda shouted, yet he coudn't hear himself over the implosion of his head. The Akuma struck then, and the closer it came, the higher and more intense the ringing became. Kanda blocked, wincing. The Akuma was fast, almost blindingly so, and he could hardly keep up with the hits along with blocking out the stinging pain of the screech.

Where was it coming from!? Obviously, it was coming from the Akuma but-

Daisya's face came to mind, bouncing Charity Bell and sending it through several Akuma, making them shake apart like so much flaky pastry.

Kanda stared at the ball inside of its chest, and he realized that it was _not_ covered in odd writing: it was the etchings of a _bell. _The Akuma was emitting the noise, distracting him.

Kanda landed face first into the dust as he was tripped, a crack forming in his tibia from the foot that had made contact with it. He growled as he flipped on to his back, swinging Mugen in a wide arc to cut off the tip of a spike. The Akuma said something, but Kanda couldn't hear it over the noise emitted from the thing in its chest.

He hoped that the sound wasn't going far. Otherwise, Nthanda was going to be deaf.

Kanda feinted with his sword to the right, a stab at the thigh, and the Akuma blocked it, only for Mugen's sheath to end up clocking the Akuma in the face. Kanda blocked the next hit with both, the force shivering up his arms and into his chest. He shook as the noise reached epic levels, and it was as if his very molecules were being shaken apart. He needed to focus! He could survive anything- the others could not!

Mugen sliced part of the helmet, and the screaming bell upped its pitch. Blood leaked from Kanda's ears, and he shouted defiantly as he kicked the Akuma in the leg, ignoring his own fractured limb. The Akuma managed to rake across his chest, but he deftly slid the sword through the arm, before shoving the sheath into the stomach of the creature.

Teeth gritted, he activated his second illusion, and the two became energy weapons, unruly and free yet within his grasp.

At one point in time, he would've considered this his joy, the ability to be in such control of weapons of destruction and mayhem. Now, all he could think of was that this _thing _was a danger to be eradicated, threatening the lives of others, fear tainting the joy he once reveled in.

Humans could be so fragile.

The energy spike sliced through the shoulder of the Akuma as it punched him in the face, leaving a rather large gash in his cheeks where the spiked knuckles had dug into the flesh, breaking the bones in his cheek. Kanda was flung back, but he had enough mind to start an upwards sweep, dragging the tip of the sheath across the bell in its chest.

The ringing finally ceased, leaving the rustling of trees and the sounds of the river.

The Akuma staggered, one leg maimed and one arm gone, scraped and scratched. It stared at Kanda and began to laugh.

"I told you it would be the last ti-"

Kanda performed a strong eight lotus strike, and the Akuma fell over, dead at last. He shook, collapsing to his knees, and he put his forehead to the dirt, taking a breath. His bare chest hurt, his face hurt, his leg _really _hurt (funny how everything looks fine and dandy next to broken bones), and he just wanted to be clean.

Finally, Kanda looked up, half his face knitting itself back together, and he could feel the tattoo over his shoulder drag the energy out of him, sapping him of a few more years. His leg snapped into place with a sharp twinge, but his chest would take longer to heal, as it was lower on the priority list. Disastrous, high profile wounds first...

* * *

><p>"They can't have gone far," Kanda muttered, looking out over the expanse with Nthanda sitting on his shoulder.<p>

The camp was a wreck. Akuma bullets riddled everything. Spell tags fluttered, forgotten, amid the grasses, and a few bits and pieces of Akuma were charred to a crisp, evident of the CROW's perhaps last ditch effort to buy the others more time. All of their belongings were either destroyed, scattered to the four winds, or otherwise too filthy to use. The only thing to be left alone... was Ellis' china set.

Kanda was not in the least surprised.

"They're gone... they're all gone... They've abandoned us," Lavinia murmured in shock, staring around her like a lost puppy. Kanda almost felt sorry for her.

_Almost. _

"They haven't abandoned us. They did the smart thing. They were no match for Akuma that strong," Kanda said, searching through the wreckage for supplies. They hadn't found any dead bodies, so they were guessing the others had run off and survived. The Akuma had obviously been after Nthanda, as it seemed the minute the demons realized the babe was not at the camp, they had split up. The grass was bent and bruised in several places, denoting a varied escape.

Nthanda reached for the ground, and Kanda set him down. The wind whistled mournfully overhead, rustling the grass and the remains of tents. Nthanda crawled over the debris, picking his way through. Kanda watched him listlessly, letting his thoughts wander.

They would need to find whatever food was still edible, and then they'd need to follow the road. More than likely, their companions would meet at the nearest town. However, Kanda wasn't sure how far that truly was.

Kanda began to dig through the remains of his tent, hoping that his map had not been destroyed. It had some holes in it where a fire had singed it, but otherwise it was intact. He spread it over his knee, trying to pinpoint their approximate location. His finger dragged over the topographical markings, his brain slowly picking apart the English letters and reassembling them into something useful.

His eyes tracked the river where they'd made camp, and he saw that the lake had been haphazardly circled in dried blood, probably with a finger in haste. The river had been traced with the same, bleeding finger. There wasn't enough blood to completely track all the way to the camp, but it was apparent. They'd be following the river.

"Kanda," Lavinia called out, her voice uncertain.

He looked up and began to walk to her, stepping over the debris. However, he was stopped by Nthanda, who had picked up the remains of his drum, futilely trying to pound the sunken skin. Kanda picked him up, along with the drum, cradling both.

"It's broken. You have to let it go," Kanda said gently to the boy, who was clinging to his broken drum. The older man sighed imperceptibly, gently prying the drum from the boy's fingers. Nthanda began to cry, reaching for it.

"It's no good," Kanda whispered, dropping it. "It's just a cheap toy. You can have another one."

Yet, the kid still reached for it, sobbing. For some reason, it almost broke Kanda's heart.

He remembered when his first and only toy broke. For some reason, it's like childhood ends at that moment. It's that moment when you realize things can be destroyed, nothing lasts forever, and the world will keep going regardless. Though Kanda had suffered many injustices before that point, it was like he had denied those things would continue, that maybe there was something better. And that stupid, flimsy, inconsequential, fun fishing pole broke.

Nthanda cried over his shoulder as Kanda finally walked over to Lavinia. The samurai surveyed the woman. Though Kanda was not known for his social skills, he _could _read body language like no one's business. He could see she was standing uncertainly, that line of tension in the spine, the subtly hunched shoulders, cocked head.

"I..."

She was holding a dusty, tattered dress. Dust covered her hands, a fine layer, and Kanda felt his heart begin beating in his throat. The dress was burned, tattered by bullets like everything else, but he couldn't take his eyes off the dress.

It was large, just big enough for an older woman. And Kanda couldn't remember what Ellis had been wearing today. His jaw tensed as he stared at the heavy, brocaded fabric, and he took a breath through his nose. Nthanda continued to cry quietly, and Kanda turned the babe's head away.

"Did she-"

"I don't know," Kanda answered brusquely, affecting a cold demeanor. He ignored the cracking sensation in his chest, the ache spreading to his throat. Though he tried hard not to think about, he couldn't help but think about the argument they'd had that morning.

_Don't let the sun go down on your anger. _

"What do we do?" Lavinia asked, quiet yet shrill. Her face was tear-streaked, and she was muddy. All her spare clothes were ruined, torn to shreds by trampling feet and bullets. Kanda would have to lend her what clothes he had left. He didn't look forward to it.

"We continue."

* * *

><p>He started mending the drum. He'd managed to salvage some needle and thread. Though the outside of the drum was cracked, he'd managed to put some of it back together with some rope. The skin would take more work.<p>

If he was honest, he was doing this because it gave him a little bit of control again. As a man who was made to destroy, there was something strange, almost divine, about fixing things, putting them back together, mending instead of breaking. His hands were inexperienced, clumsy, but he persevered.

Nthanda watched him for several seconds before playing with the bedroll, babbling to himself. Sometimes the kid would look out to the grasslands, and then he'd begin to yank on his pant leg, whining. He had yet to begin speaking, but that was to be expected. He sure could go on and on though.

When Kanda ignored him, he'd flop down in on his bum, and he'd crawl around a bit before listlessly playing with the dirt. For the first few hours, he'd cried for Ellis and Vanya, and now he wouldn't go farther than three feet from Kanda. The man couldn't even poop in peace. Lavinia was no help- she was just as needy as the kid.

Though he could stomach holding Nthanda while he answered the call of nature, he was _not _going to deal with Lavinia breathing down his neck, too. He'd made her set up camp for them.

They had walked along the river for nearly seven hours, until it got dark. Beside them, it rushed quietly on its way. They had only gone a few kilometers, Lavinia's blisters keeping her from going much farther. She had found a pair of unused boots that were a size too big. Even now, she was soaking her feet in the water, staring across the river with a strange, lost look. Without her bluster and indomitable optimism, she seemed a smaller woman, shrunken and squeezed into this little body. He had never noticed how young or frail she looked. He'd originally pegged her as twenty-something, but now he guessed she was closer to seventeen.

She was wearing his clothes, and they hung off of her like a circus tent on a scarecrow. She hadn't complained when he'd handed the last of his clean wardrobe, and he could swear he'd caught her sniffing the collar at least once. However, she was being oddly demure now.

"I'm hungry," she finally called, breaking the silence.

Well, so much for demure.

A bag flew at her side, filled with the last of their provisions. She stared at it.

"And my feet hurt too!" she called out as well, possibly with a touch of hope.

A bottle of foot cream (no doubt, Ellis' bottle) landed in the sand next to her. She stared at it and pouted, looking back at Kanda. His back was towards her, his face wreathed by the glow of the fire as he continued sewing the skin of the drum together.

"Could I have some conversation as well? I enjoy intelligent talk."

"No."

Kanda continued his work, though in the distance he thought he heard the sound of wet feet slapping against the ground. Suddenly, a shadow crossed over his work, and he looked up at the irate woman standing before him.

Oh, great.

"I am trying... to be nice. And courteous. And thoughtful. I'm trying to _talk _to you after this absolute hell of a day. And all you can do is sit there and not do anything?" Lavinia complained, putting her hands on her hips.

"If you don't mind, I'm trying to do something productive," Kanda griped.

Lavinia pinched the bridge of her nose, and she spat out, "That's all you have to say!"

She flopped to the ground by him, sticking her feet next to the fire. Kanda took a sidelong glance at her, and he noticed she hadn't even attended to her face. Pockmarks dotted one cheek and forehead, the lasting signature of war. He stuck his needle into the side of the drum, thread dangling, and he sighed.

"Go get the medicine bag," Kanda ordered.

Lavinia stared at him with incredulity, and she winced involuntarily at the pain. Honestly, Kanda was amazed she hadn't complained of the injuries prior. She sure hadn't shut up about her feet. If he had a pence for every time she asked if he could carry her, or if they could stop, or if she could _please _have a new set of shoes, he'd never work another day in his life and he'd tell the Order where they could stick it. However, he could see that the shrapnel wounds weren't deep; they looked worse than they truly were. They were probably the aftermath of hot dirt sprayed in her face, and with a little doctoring she'd heal up.

Lavinia handed him the medicine bag, which now doubled as Nthanda's diaper bag, and Kanda motioned for Lavinia to sit. She did so next to the fire.

"Put up your hair. You'll catch it on fire," Kanda muttered as he dug out gauze, some rubbing alcohol, and a tub of something sticky Din had made to use as adhesive.

Lavinia hastily put up her hair, and Kanda began ministering to her face. Midway through, Nthanda crawled into his lap and settled down, curling around Mugen which was sitting in his lap. The baby was still naked as the day he was born. Though they had diapers, he refused to let them so much as touch him with one, disappearing and reappearing at random when chased with clothes. Kanda had thought it best not to reveal his superhuman nature in front of Lavinia, for fear she would swoon into something dangerous, making _two _stupid kids he'd have to look after.

"Ouch! That stings!"

"Next time, run faster than the red hot dirt. Then you won't have to deal with this."

"Well, I hadn't expected to get hit in the face with dirt! I didn't know it was possible to get injured by dust."

"You'd be surprised by what can injure you."

"Ow! Stop it!" Lavinia whined, slapping his hands away, and Kanda held her head still with both hands.

"If you don't get these cleaned, you're going to end up with scars," he said seriously, looking her dead in the eye. Her own pair widened significantly. He'd hit his mark; of course, her vanity was an awfully big target.

"Do you want scars? Big fat ugly ones? Because these would look bad," Kanda continued, screwing with her. "They look like they're scarring right now."

"Pour that bottle on my face! No, no, no," she whimpered, closing her eyes. She cocked one eye open experimentally. "Does it... look terrible? Truly terrible?"

Honestly, she was hoping that maybe she might have that whole 'battle-worn heroine' look to her, and perhaps _that _would be more attractive to this gruff prince than some society girl. But the scars couldn't be too big! Otherwise it would ruin the effect. Then, she'd only look ugly.

Kanda only raised an eyebrow at her and continued wiping off the dirt and grime.

The silence stretched, grasshoppers fluttering in the night air and the occasional noise from some forest animal. Nthanda didn't even stir when a jackal began baying in the distance.

"Dearest, what are you doing out here?" Lavinia asked. "You're much too ha-... too, uh, important surely to be wandering the wildernesses with a babe."

"Don't call me 'dearest'. My name is Kanda."

"Of course, dearest."

He could only sigh. She was incorrigible.

"I'm part of the clergy. That's why I'm escorting the kid to Cairo," Kanda answered, applying salve to Lavinia's face. She scrunched her nose. Kanda thought she did because of the smelly ointment. Lavinia did because she realized, with horror, that he was a _priest. _Catholic heathen! Depriving a woman of his good looks! How dare he?!

Perhaps she could convert him to Protestantism.

"I hadn't... realized that the clergy took on monsters," Lavinia said nervously. Thinking of the vicious creatures that had attacked camp, a shiver ran down her spine as she realized they were probably tracking them.

"I'm in a specialized priesthood. You could say we were directly ordained by God," Kanda muttered with an absent-minded tone. He began applying the bandages to her face, dotting her eyebrow, half her forehead, and part of her cheek. By tomorrow, at the least, she wouldn't have to worry about infection.

"You're finished," Kanda said. Lavinia smiled, big white pearly teeth in a pretty mouth. Kanda didn't smile back. He picked up his baby and his sword, and he walked to his bedroll.

"You aren't going to eat dinner?" Lavinia asked, disappointed. She was hoping for a firelight meal alone with him! This was the perfect opportunity to get to know each other... talk the night away... maybe accidentally fall into each other's arms... After all, she was already wearing his clothes! Surely, he didn't have to lead her on!

"Not hungry," Kanda answered, making himself comfortable on the ground. "You take first watch. Wake me if something happens."

Lavinia looked out into the wilderness with wild eyes, and she picked up a rather large stick hesitantly as she watched every rustle of grass. She saw shadows leaping towards her from the deeps of the grassland, and her heart began pounding in her ears...

"What are you out here for?" Kanda suddenly asked.

He stared out into the dark, thinking of how night had this strange, contemplative effect on him. If Alma's favorite part of the day had been just before dawn, Kanda's was midnight, that time when things seemed to be at some kind of magical stillness. Sure, there was activity, there were things awake in the dark, but for the most part, the world of man had stopped, leaving just a curious silence.

With Nthanda breathing slowly in the crook of his arm, hugging a sword, he felt oddly peaceful, a kind of calm he hadn't experienced in a long time.

Well, until Nthanda let loose a horrid fart. The calm quickly dissipated after that, hence his question.

"I... I was tired. Of court life," Lavinia admitted.

He could hear her moving along the ground, shifting. She threw something on the fire, making it crackle.

"There's a falseness to that life. Everything feels hollow. You don't know what you feel or what the people around you feel. Everyone's nice, but you're not quite sure why. Sometimes, you begin to wonder whether you actually feel or not. So I came out here. Feelings are... much more apparent. They're real. I've never felt true fear until today. I've never felt true love... I've never felt true hate, and I've never felt dirty or sad or uncertain. Here, everything must be real," Lavinia went on.

"Yeah. Death is pretty real out here, too," Kanda muttered sardonically at her romantic speech.

"How do you appreciate the life you have without death following behind?" Lavinia countered. "Life becomes something you take for granted. Until its in jeopardy, you never realize how much you love it. How much you want it."

Kanda sat up, and he looked at her with narrowed eyes.

"That's a nice sentiment. But honestly, try living like that every day. You change your mind."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Hola! I have completed yet another chapter! Thank you for sticking to the story, despite the long wait. I promised this chapter of katerina001 about three months ago. So I'm super-duper late. But better late than never, right?

I'd like to thank the two newcomers to the favorites group and subscriber group: Satoshistar7 and Aerea-Sparda-Azenath!

I'd like to also thank the reviewers:  
>Lotus Seed: Thank you for the very detailed review. You answered every one of my questions! That's great! I'm glad that you enjoy the dynamic of the relationships. This is a rather character driven story, after all, so if the characters are flat or not amusing, the story will drag like a waterskier without skis. Unfortunately, I didn't get to add Nthanda's point of view into this chapter, but hopefully it crops up again if my brain takes it in that direction.<p>

karina001: Okay, I don't remember if I sent you the chapter or not, so you may have to PM me. XD I am so sorry for the lateness! I love how you review the story, making a dialogue with the story itself. It's a lot like annotating. It's a lot like a play by play. It gives me a good idea of how people react to certain scenes and things. As always, your insight is very welcome and incredibly telling.

BloodStainsOnMyKisses: I see we have a shipper on board! That's a dangerous thing to be in my stories. ;P You never know what you're bargaining for. But I'll leave you to your interpretation of events.

DGraymanGrl: I'm pleased you liked the Comtesse! She's also grown on me, honestly, and I'm having fun playing around with her character, considering she's kind of a wide-eyed idealist compared to Kanda and his more 'realist' point of view. Thank you, very much!

Satoshistar7: I see that the sentiment towards Lavinia is pretty across the board! There are quite a few of you who can't stand her, and a few who actually like her. I'm glad you've picked a side, and you know why you don't like her. I apologize that this chapter seems to focus mostly on the one person you don't like much, but hopefully Kanda's presence will balance it.

And to my Guest: I'm so glad you decided to review, even though you have no account! That means a lot to me, because it means you're invested in the story anyways. I'm happy you're making connections with the Canon. I myself thought much the same thing, and it does play a big role in his character and why he acts the way he does.

Now, to your favorite part: the discussion section. _Does anyone else agree with BloodStain? Do you think there's some romanticism going on in the story? If so, between who? If not, do you think that's necessarily a bad thing? What kind of emotions were stirred up by this chapter? Does anyone have any personal stories or feelings they can relate to this chapter? Do you think each chapter has a 'moral' or a lesson, or are they all merely for entertainment? What do you make of Kanda's interactions with Lavinia? What kind of mishaps do you think Nthanda is likely to get into? Is the story moving along at a fair pace, or is it still dragging its feet? What do you think happened to the rest of the party? Are there too many battles, not enough battles, or are they pretty evenly spread out through the story?_

That's all I got for now. God bless, and happy reading! (And look up Aardwolf. You will not be disappointed.)


	16. And Now I'm Found

She woke up blearily to small legs crawling on her face. Her eyes cracked wide open, much like eggs dropped on tile, and she quickly flailed her arms over her face with a high-pitched keening noise only heard by the jackals. She stood, chest heaving and staring around for a few minutes, trying to gather her bearings.

Oh. She'd been sleeping on the ground. Right. That would explain her backache, the terrible soreness in her legs (how did peasants stand to walk all day?!), and the ugly clothes she was wearing. Lavinia smoothed back her hair with a sniff, regaining her composure. A lady must never show disdain or ungratefulness. Even if she just had a bug crawl on her face.

She shivered and did a little dance as she thought of the multitude of tiny legs crawling over her precious skin. Disgusting! Horrid! Nature was absolutely _nasty. _She had expected seeing jaguars and encountering lion prides and gracefully taming an elephant or a giraffe, not dealing with _bugs. _

Lavinia surveyed the area, and she noticed that the dear bab was nowhere to be seen. She frowned as she looked over at Kanda's spot on the ground, and it, too, was empty. No doubt he must've taken him on a walk or some such. Stretching her spine, she sighed, and her stomach growled loudly. She covered it with both hands as if afraid it would try to climb out and grab the nearest morsel.

"Dear me," she whispered to herself. And then, a little "I beg your pardon" to absolutely no one. It was purely force of habit.

She looked around and found Kanda's bag, and a mischievous look crossed her face. Surely he wouldn't mind her taking... one...two... maybe three or four pieces of his beef jerky? After all, a true gentleman fed his lady first, and then he himself went to hunt dinner.

She dug through the bag voraciously, pulling out a rather beaten apple (which was slowly becoming apple sauce), several strips of salted pork, a rather abused wheel of cheese, a couple of tubers, and a jar of... something. Disappointed, she pursed her lips, scratching the bandages that were stuck to her face. They had begun to itch now that she was awake. She _would _have pulled them off, but she had no idea what she looked like underneath.

She shivered as she thought of the possible ramifications. He said she'd get scars if she took them off! Good heavens, she couldn't do _that! _Scars were for the masses, not a Comtesse. Though she wouldn't mind wearing the rugged look, but only for so long. She had to don the face of society once she reentered civilization.

Her stomach growled again. She was slowly realizing that, though she may have preferences for eggs Benedict with a side of French toast, Canadian syrup, and several pieces of bacon, her stomach would gladly take any sort of sustenance. She huffed to herself, brushing off her twice-big pants and buffing the apple on her thrice-big shirt. It did nothing to make the apple more appealing.

She had only just bitten into it when she saw the footprints in the dirt. He'd left her! That bloody cad!

She stamped her foot. Leave her, would he?! Well, she was not about to be abandoned! This lady was going to take care of herself, and that meant sticking with him where ever he went! She'd follow him to the depths of the earth, to the very bowels of the world! ... Perhaps not the _bowels _of the world, maybe just to the stomach. No need to get carried away...

She followed the footprints toward the river, muttering to herself angrily as she bit into her apple and cursed men and their wicked ways. Leaving a lady...! Abandoning a woman in her time of need...! Not even having the decency to leave any breakfast...! She didn't care how handsome he was, that was rude.

But then she heard singing.

Now, she'd heard much better singing in her day. Her father had hired an entire men's choir to sing for her birthday, and their voices had sounded marvelous in the cathedral. However, they lacked the strange texture of a single man's out-of-tune, yet somehow faithful, rendition of a song. It was sad, full of heartbreak, but it was also quiet. Private.

She peered from behind a tree, watching with a strange look on her face. Kanda gently bathed Nthanda in the river, the baby still groggy and bleary eyed. Nthanda yawned wide and grabbed a strand of his loose, dark hair, just for the sake of security rather than any real need. His back was tense under his white shirt, and he stood against the water's current.

Abruptly, she felt like she was intruding on something profound and intimate. Flashing in his hand, she could see a strip of Ellis' dress used as a wash cloth, smoothing the dirt off of Nthanda's face and arms. Something about watching them felt wrong, as if she'd walked in on a funeral with fireworks and a ballgown. She'd never felt so uncomfortable before. It used to be, she could do what she wanted where she wanted without regard for the others around her, but something about this felt... indecent of her. Almost rude of her.

She turned to walk away -

A twig snapped, but it wasn't her foot that had broken it.

Kanda's head twitched faster than she thought was possible. The sword that was always near him was suddenly out in a flash, and something moved in the forest. His eyes tracked the noise with a steely glint, all business, and for a moment Lavinia was glad that he was on _her _side. She swallowed, not daring to move.

What _was_ that moving through the tall grass?

* * *

><p>He'd heard it like the resound of a cannon. A twig had snapped in the forest, and he removed Mugen from its sheath with the fluidity of one who didn't need to think about the action. Eyes tracked through the forest, searching for the source of the noise.<p>

Briefly he saw a flare of red hair, and he almost deflated, realizing it was just Lavinia, probably sneaking a peek at him. He was going to have to cover his tracks better. Scratch that, he would walk on the tops of the trees so he wouldn't leave footprints. The woman could smell him from a mile away. She was worse than Lavi.

But then, there was a brief rustle from the grass, and he knew that she wasn't the source of the noise. His sword wavered towards the grasses, and he suddenly swept it in a quick strike, creating a vacuum sharp enough to cut down the grasses. Something screeched and shook off the fallen stalks from its hide, and it leaped towards him -

_And then he was in that in-between place, that strange here-not-here space where nothing and everything collided, pulled, grabbed at him, crushed and spread him thin, strange visions passing before his eyes as he seemed to fall through space, tumbling and tumbling and in a whirlwind, the only thing that was real being the squirming, babbling things in his arms (he had arms?) and _

**POP**

He stood nearly three meters away from the river, an Akuma buried up to the ankles in mud where he'd stood. Kanda looked down at Nthanda, who was angrily babbling at the monster, waving one hand at the creature while yanking a strand of Kanda's hair with the other.

"What did... you...?" Lavinia gasped, and Kanda realized he was standing not five feet from her. He handed Nthanda over.

"Keep him, if you can," Kanda ordered, running down towards the monster waiting for them at the river's edge.

It was a Level Two, hump-backed and silvery with armor plating like an armadillo. It rolled into a ball and began towards him, but he sidestepped easily as it bowled over several trees. So they were going to play matador, were they? Fine by him, he could do this all day.

Tauntingly, he stood there with open arms, motioning with his fingers his intent to fight.

**Never underestimate your opponent! You know better than that!**

Kanda's brow furrowed as the inner voice assailed him with its wanton wisdom, and he realized that the Akuma had left a shimmering array of dust in the air where it had rolled by. A flurry of it fell on him, and immediately his clothes began to dissolve. Mentally, he cursed his stupidity.

"Lavinia! Get out of here! Don't touch the dust!" Kanda yelled at the inert woman, who stood staring dumbly at him.

She shook herself out of her reverie and immediately began running up the hill. The Akuma rolled around in front of her, and she screamed, a high-pitched shriek of such terror that even Kanda felt his spine tingle in sympathy. He raced past her, braving the cloud of silver motes, his face stinging as he stabbed it in the side.

Breathing in the motes was like sucking pins into his lungs. Whatever it was, it was nasty stuff, and he hated to think what it would do to civilians. The Akuma screamed, spinning around and unleashing another wave of the silvery shavings, and Kanda realized they were going to be trapped by the poisonous cloud soon. Lavinia was staring wide-eyed, and she abruptly began coughing, curling into a ball on the ground with Nthanda in her arms. The baby, however, didn't seem affected as he stood up and babbled anxiously, slapping Lavinia's face with his fat little hands.

"Nthanda!" Kanda shouted.

The baby looked up at the samuria as Kanda swung his sword in front of him, keeping the Akuma at bay for the moment.

"You need to take Lavinia away from here. This stuff is bad for her," Kanda said in the simplest terms he could manage. He cast a sidelong glance at the baby.

What was he _doing?_ The kid couldn't understand him. He was a baby! He could hardly walk, much less -

The baby disappeared with a resounding **POP, **taking Lavinia with him, much to Kanda's relief and surprise. Now he didn't have to deal with almost stepping on people and keeping tabs on them. It was so annoying to have to fight with others around, especially the incredibly breakable civilians. He slashed at the Akuma, cutting ruts in its shell.

It rolled towards him, and he sidestepped again, hiking the collar of his shirt over his mouth as dust spiraled through the air. Great, now he could hardly see, he was tearing up so bad. He coughed and sidestepped again, almost becoming roadkill as the Akuma tried to flatten him. He dragged his sword down its flank, and Akuma blood spurted on the ground, a fetid stink thrown up by the gore.

"Can't you just _die _already?!" the Akuma whined. "I need to get the kid!"

Kanda glared at the Akuma, and he unleashed a lotus strike, an eight-pointed star marking itself into the Akuma's hide. It screeched and rolled away, trying to escape into the woods and away to fight another day -

**POP**

A baby suddenly landed on top of it, and Kanda felt his heart stop for all of a moment.

"Nthanda! You get off that thing, _right now__!"_

Nthanda, however, was not so preoccupied with his yelling, and the baby slapped its hands on the Akuma's back noisily as it spun around, trying to figure out what had landed on top of it.

"Hey, hey, _hey hey hey, what are you doing,** no, no, no, no,**_** _no!_**_"_ the Akuma shrieked as strange, gold lines suddenly began to crack it's shell. Nthanda kept hitting the Akuma like a drum, a great _thoom thoom _sound echoing off the Akuma as it pinwheeled and tried to get at the child on its back. It finally had the presence of mind to roll, but by then Kanda had already come upon it and slashed through the glittering gold lines spreading on its skin, cracking off the Akuma's head. It shrieked a final death cry, and then it fell.

Nthanda sat on top of the carcass rather triumphantly, the gold lines spreading through the Akuma like the roots of a great, golden plant. Kanda climbed on top of it, his foot falling through where the gold lines had eaten away the Dark Matter. Where ever the converted Dark Matter fell, great plumes of green flourished like geysers of vegetation. Soon, this spot would be nothing but a verdant garden.

Kanda picked up the baby and stared at the Akuma under his feet in awe. He swallowed and panted, wiping his eyes with his free hand, partly because they stung and partly to make sure he was _actually _seeing what he thought he was seeing.

Finally, he looked at Nthanda with a very serious look.

"You're grounded."

* * *

><p>It was the first time he'd ever had to discipline the kid. A quick pat to the butt was all that was truly needed, along with some time spent in the No No Box.<p>

Of course, _he _didn't call it the No No Box, but it sounded appropriate. It was just a little patch of dirt with a box drawn on it with Mugen's tip, but it seemed to work effectively on the small baby, who was crying and pouting at Kanda. For such a small child, he was awfully precocious. Already, he was fighting the Akuma. It'd taken months to teach Lenalee how to use her Innocence correctly, and probably longer to teach Allen (considering the kid was as reflexive as a potato).

Nthanda, however, did not seem to notice that his behavior was unusual for a baby his age. He stared at Kanda sullenly, drawing in the dirt to pass the time. He'd been put in the No No Box for all of ten minutes, which was half the time that Kanda intended to keep him there, but to the babe, it felt like an eternity.

Suddenly, Nthanda felt a deep longing as he thought about the wash cloth he'd been bathed with, which had smelled like Ellis' perfume. He started to cry again as he reached up towards Kanda to hold him, as he demanded comfort, but Kanda ignored him, instead filling his bag with more supplies he'd rescued from Lavinia's endless stomach. Nthanda sniffled, and he lay on his side.

It just wasn't fair. He killed the monster, he was tired and hungry, and this was the thanks he got. He didn't even have his trusty steed with him. He couldn't take this for much longer. He needed loyal subjects who would do as he commanded, as that was his station in life, even if he could only get out the occasional babble. Kanda had been very loyal, until he'd pulled out the discipline (Nthanda had ignored the fact that he'd disobeyed his caretaker). It didn't help that Vanya was gone. _She _would've at least handed him a bug to play with.

But Lavinia... perhaps she was more inclined to follow his whims. After all, she swooned over Kanda, so surely a handsome baby like himself should have a likewise effect. Not to mention, he was cute as a button! Ellis had told him so. It must be true. Even Kanda couldn't help holding him once in a while, just because.

He made grabby motions towards Lavinia, and the young woman bit her lip. Nthanda pushed it harder, straining over the lines of the No No Box without actually overstepping the boundaries. For whatever reason, the box was like a force field of some kind, and though he recognized he could step over it, the repercussions were too dire.

That pat on the butt had not been fun. He didn't want a repeat performance.

Nthanda sniffed, grasping the air toward his toy drum, and Lavinia's gaze fell on it. They both looked at Kanda, who was busy with his back turned, and Lavinia scooped up the drum and carried it over quietly on tiptoe.

"Don't you dare."

Lavinia turned on a heel and walked away with an innocent whistle.

Traitor!

There was a rustling in the brush, and Nthanda stood up to stare at the noise with a sniffle. He whimpered angrily as Kanda scooped him out of the No No Box, sword wavering towards the tall grasses that seemed to surround them. The river was to their back, guarding them, but they were surrounded by tall grass. Kanda hadn't had much choice.

Kanda shifted Nthanda, who pouted at the samurai for removing him from a potential battle, and Lavinia had somehow disappeared. Nthanda stared down the sword-point that seemed to swim in the air like a silverfish, bobbing and weaving in the air, ready to strike at the nearest enemy.

Nthanda gripped a strand of black hair, squirming to look up into the grass for signs of other life. Was it human? Was it an animal? Part of him hoped it was one of those blasted monsters that chased them, but the other part of him, the part that was still small and growing, belted fear. The baby scrunched his face as the conflict raged in him, tears beginning to form as he buried his face in Kanda's shoulder.

Kanda shushed him softly, but his eyes were elsewhere. They scanned the overgrowth, searching through the trees. His breath came in soft gusts, prepared for heavy panting and swift action. His arms struggled to keep up with his body's demands, and his sword arm trembled for a moment.

"Mistuh Kanda, y'makin' me nervous. You kin put dat down," a familiar voice said from behind, a slight chuckle hiding behind his words.

Kanda spun around with a sigh, looking at Din, who was sheepishly standing there with a gun. Kanda looked back at the grass, wondering how the man had managed to sneak around him without his knowledge.

Dingane called out in a foreign language, and several dark-skinned men wearing traditional hunting garb stepped from the grass like ghosts out of mist. They carried guns and bows, all their faces serious and flat as Kanda's eyes shifted from one face to the other. Somehow, they'd got the drop on him. That was not something one did without effort.

"Heavens!"

Nthanda looked over Kanda's shoulder to see two of the native men grinning to each other and pointing up in a tree. Lavinia had somehow wedged herself between two branches in a rather awkward position, and she did not look happy to be noticed.

"Could you get them to stop laughing and pointing at me! It's rude!"

* * *

><p>"We walked f'days. Deh dog led us to the settlement by the rivuh, cuz he smelled their food, and I knew what language dey speak. 'Twas hard deh first day, what cuz Miz Vanya bein' injured 'n all, but we made usselves useful. I hunt wit' em, and Vanya helped th'women with the wash 'n cookin'," Din recounted as they trekked back to the compound.<p>

"How'd you find us?" Kanda asked, rubbing the back of his neck. He had Nthanda in a sling on his front, the babe so tired out that he didn't even make a sound when he was laid down. Typically, the kid would squirm and fight it to the best of his ability. Now that he'd learned to walk, he didn't _stop. _

"We was lookin' fo' Lady Ellis. I thought you'd fin' us sooner or later, so I din' worry much 'bout you. Ellis... she a whole other kettle a fish," Din sighed. "Sent deh dog, 'n he found yer trail. He tired out, though." Din jerked a thumb over his shoulder at one of the tribesmen who was carrying the dog on his shoulders. The dog hung his head guiltily, though his tail wagged to show his appreciation.

"What happened to him?" Kanda asked.

"Met wit' a porcupine not five hours 'fore we found deh settlement. He done found out the hahd way dat dem porcupine, they _shoot _needles too," Din said with a slight hint of amusement. "Vanya been picking needles outta him since yestuhday."

It was quiet as they walked. Kanda wheezed as he walked, though he valiantly kept stride. His eyes followed the road as his mind roiled like a boiling pot. His eyes shot over to Din frequently, noting the calm demeanor of the Finder. For a man who'd been through so much, he was incredibly level-headed. Kanda wasn't sure if that was a side effect of his experiences or the reason he was still alive.

Whatever the reason, he wouldn't be calm for long. The washcloth made of Ellis' dress sat heavy in his pocket. The implications woven into it created a cloud of unrest that only Kanda could feel. He didn't know if it was better to let Din carry on the hope of finding her or break it to him quickly and without fuss. After all, the older woman had long known the consequences of her involvement.

"Vanya's missing," Din suddenly announced.

The trees swayed to the rhythm of the wind, the light dappled in front of them. Grass wavered, and the sounds of the verdant land were soft. The world seemed oddly at peace, so dissonant from the losses they'd suffered.

"What happened?" Kanda asked. A weight settled on his shoulders that was much heavier than just Nthanda in his borrowed scarf. He tried to shrug off the sensation, but it remained, like it always did. The weight lessened with time, effort, training. Sometimes it went away completely with enough completed missions and healthy numbers. It was tempting fate, though, to think it would not come back. It was cancer of the heart, a growth he should excise.

He hated that he cared. It made his job so much harder.

"Slavers came through las' night. We lose... mehbe ten men, seventeen women. Most of th'women were young girls, some fresh married," Din recounted, his composure still calm. He walked steadily, thankfully ignoring the rattle in Kanda's chest. His gun was cradled in his arms like a child, and his eyes ingrained ruts into the road.

"She went after them."

"Yeah. Tha's what she done."

"Idiot."

" 'Das what I try 'n tell her, but she got a skull like a rock."

Kanda looked at him with a quirked eyebrow, and Din half-smiled, shrugging. The two continued their pace ahead of the rest of the team, and it was quiet again as the two digested their thoughts carefully. In the background, they could hear Lavinia pleading for someone to carry her. She had blisters that'd made their home on the soles of her feet. With a practiced mental shove, they ignored her whining.

"What about her three morons? You see what happen to them?" Kanda asked with a crackling sigh as he cast a long-suffering glance behind him.

"We found one a dem wit' a tent pole. We as' him what happened to deh rest a them, and he tell me dat some slavers picked 'em up. He chased after 'em, but they had trucks. He used the pole f' walkin' 'n carryin' the supplies he found, 'n he got pretty far. He's o'er in a hut, gibberin' to 'imself," Dingane sighed, stretching out his shoulders. He looked up and scanned the camp area they'd arrived at.

Huts made of some kind of reed were set up all around, and it was obvious something had happened prior. Some of the huts were mostly charred wood and ash, and a fair amount of belongings had been either piled into the wrecks or left to the elements. Women wearing traditional garb were gathered around fires. They stared at the newcomers as their men gave solemn whistles to their wives, who whistled back. The Rhodesian ridgeback was put back on the ground, and it limped happily next to Kanda, grinning and drooling all over his shoes. Kanda tried not to roll his eyes.

"What now, Mistuh Kanda?" Din asked as Kanda stood in the middle of the ad hoc village. "You the one leadin' this journey. We missin' Vanya, Ellis, two a hers..."

Din pointed to Lavinia, who was staring incredulously (and obliviously) at some of the women in the camp, most who had piercings of one kind or another, their hair coarse and dark as black sand, shaven close to the scalp.

Kanda gave Din an almost incredulous look. He rubbed the palm of one hand with the thumb of the other, his mind reeling. He couldn't betray his insecurity, though. He still had to get to civilization, drop off that _twit _of a woman with the remains of her entourage, figure out how to notify Malcolm that his cousin or sister or whoever... had...

"I need a night's sleep before we decide anything. No use making decisions while I can't even breathe," Kanda grumbled angrily, roughly handing the scarf with Nthanda inside to the Finder.

The dark-skinned man watched as Kanda left, his back knotted tighter than the Navy's rigging. He put on the scarf, Nthanda inside, and watched as the Exorcist stalked off. His brow furrowed, and he rubbed his eyes with a deep sigh.

With eyes like that, who would believe he was a child?

* * *

><p>He rubbed the piece of cloth between his fingers. His eyes scanned the trees, but he didn't see them. He stood perfectly still, statuesque. Yet, for someone so still, his insides swayed and groaned like a great ship in a squall. In a way, that was exactly what he was. He had no safe harbor. He had no heading. He had nothing but himself and the child -<p>

No, it would be easy if it were just him and the child. He had Lavinia to worry about. He had Dingane and Vanya to worry about. He had so many _people _to worry about, and he wished they'd disappear. He needed them to. At least if they disappeared he'd know they might be alive. He could fool himself for a little while, let the guilt fester like a numbed wound for a while, just long enough to get to Cairo and break.

The piece of cloth was soft. It was well-worn, weathered. It seemed to wrap his fingers with a downy feeling. It was so different from the cloth he was used to. He knew leather, and he knew thick, scratchy cotton. This was something else entirely. It was cloth that had been used and used and used, had never met a bullet or a sword or a knife. It was washed and scrubbed with care instead of thrown away with blood stains so deep, they couldn't be scrubbed out. It was cloth that had been washed with launder's soap instead of cheap lye. It was a cloth used by someone who had no business being in a war.

The cloth couldn't be insulted. He couldn't call it an old broad or useless hag or sniveling witch. It wouldn't answer. He couldn't snap at it and expect it to snap back. It wouldn't berate him. Yet, it seemed to be soaked in her. Just the soft _shh shh _of the weave through his fingers sounded like her for a few moments. It was hard to hear, like having sandpaper rubbed against his eardrums.

He had no memento of the other one. He had memories, and they weren't even his to begin with. Yet, as clear as day, he could hear her tinkling laughter, the coy eyes that seemed to draw him in. Clearly, one or two aspects would materialize, but never the whole face, never her voice, never her name. He didn't know what he'd do if he _did _have her name. Would he seek her out? What good would that do?

Besides, they were both dead. No use mourning, or shedding tears, or giving speeches, or chasing ghosts.

So why was it so hard to let go?

"Hmmmm, 'lo," a small, brittle voice said behind him.

Kanda turned around, and he looked down at the small, withered man staring at him with a blissful smile. His eyes were like sparkling jet, full of mischief and vitality yet hiding some other, mysterious thing that made Kanda's skin crawl.

"Thinking?" the man asked.

Kanda didn't answer, just stared at the man. He toddled over, his back bent almost ninety degrees with respect to his hips. He walked with a stick that was taller than Kanda, a charm dangling from the end.

"I hope you are. Lots of thinking. You're going to do much of it," the little man said with the same blissful smile. He shook gently, age making him wobble like a top on the last of its inertia. He gripped his staff with arthritic hands as he stared into the forest with the long-haired man.

"My boys, they say you had the babe that turns the dead to gold," the little man stated clearly.

Kanda's face was still stony and silent. He didn't hide the fact he had his hand on the hilt of his sword. The little man declined to acknowledge the hint.

"Ah, don't have to get an answer from you. I know it was him," the little man said with a nod of the head, bobbing up and down on his stalk neck while he smiled. "And you must be the man who slays those monsters as well!"

"Exorcist," Kanda corrected gruffly, turning to walk away.

He'd only gone three or five steps before the old man stated, "He's not who you think he is."

Kanda stopped and stared at the leaf-littered ground for a moment before continuing his walk.

"He's actually a prince. A rather important prince."

Kanda didn't stop.

"He is the gateway to the dead."

He continued without a backward glance.

"He can take you to meet her again. The one you left behind. Not the older one, the young one. The one you keep dreaming about."

Kanda's footfalls slowly fell silent as doubt muffled his will to walk away.

"Who are you?" Kanda hissed, drawing his sword and turning around. His jaw was set, his chest heaving with barely restrained anger and confusion. The old man, however, didn't appear worried. He only smiled that same smile and waved a finger at him.

"I thought that'd get your attention!"

Kanda stalked forward, sword at his side, and threatened, "Don't make me castrate you, old man. Who are you? What do you know?"

The sword wavered under the man's prodigious nose, but the old man still seemed blissfully unaware of the danger he was in.

"All in due time. Sit with me. I have tea going," the man said, waving a brown hand and slowly walking away. Kanda stared in incredulity as the centenarian slowly made his way back to his hut.

* * *

><p>"One lump or two?"<p>

"I don't drink tea."

"Two it is, then."

The old man plopped two scoops of sugar into the teacup with frustrating slowness. The spill of the grains made Kanda want to tear off his ears. Considering he was about half a mile away from the main village, he figured that'd be a bad idea.

The old man's hut was made of slightly thicker reed than the others, and it also boasted a second room. The sun filtered through the gaps in the roof, creating bright spots on the dirt floor. They played over the old man as he continued to prepare tea on an ancient silver tea tray that looked like it had survived at least six different coup d'etats and perhaps one or two different owners. At least one of them had an encounter with a bullet, given the hole in the upper corner.

Finally, the man carried the tray to the meager table and set it down carefully and, to Kanda's irritation, with the utmost slowness. Unable to take the eternal wait for the tray to hit the table, Kanda merely took the tray from the old man and set it down.

"Oh! Why thank you. It was getting heavy," the old man said jovially.

"You're welcome," Kanda ground out between his teeth.

"You must wonder who I am."

_Thank the Lord, _Kanda growled in his mind as he reluctantly lifted his teacup.

"Oh, no, no, I'm not the Lord! Good heavens, that'd be a right mess," the old man cackled, and Kanda made a mental note to keep his tongue in check before he said something either incriminating or, God forbid, _an icebreaker. _

"My name is Benedict Ngambe, but you may call me Benny, because you are so special a person. I run the town, make sure people are not ill, prophecy for them, work out legal cases -"

Tea almost shot out of Kanda's nose.

"Wait, what did you say? The middle one."

"I said that I make sure people aren't ill -"

_"No, you daft idiot, the other middle one." _

"Legal cases?"

Kanda's forehead crashed into the table. He was getting nowhere.

"Ah, lessee, where was I? Ah, yes! I work out legal cases, _and _I am a Black Order correspondent."

Kanda slowly lifted his head and stared at the little, shriveled walnut of a man sitting down in front of him. He was so small, he hardly stood taller than Kanda's waist. His nose could've protected an ant colony in a rainstorm. His eyes were almost lost in the folds of his face, and his wrinkles had wrinkles. This man was... a Black Order correspondent?

"Are you serious?" Kanda asked, his jaw slack. He was so tired, he would've believed anything. He wanted to be sure.

"Why, yes! Yes, indeed. I am a certified clairvoyant, and when I head to Chokwe, the city, I tell the Order the things I find out. When Dingane found us, I was ecstatic. It's been so long since I've seen those backpack phones," Benny crowed with a great smile.

"How do you know English?" Kanda slowly drawled, suddenly hitting on a question he'd had nagging him since he'd met the man.

"I met a seminarian on a trip to Chokwe, when I was small. The Order offered to take me aside and educate me due to my abilites, hoping I'd be an Accommodator, but I had no such luck. In return for the good care I received, I have helped the Order ever since. My hate for the Earl is just as fervent as yours, I assure you," Benny chuckled lightheartedly. He took a long sip from his teacup while Kanda stared into his own.

"You said something about the kid. That he was a prince or something," Kanda rumbled directly.

Benny nodded as he swallowed his tea, frowning to himself.

"He was the prince of a great, but long gone, people. He made an allegiance with the God of the Order after his people began turning to the Earl for comfort after a long, bloody civil war. Anyhow, that bit isn't very important. What _is _important was that he picked up Innocence, it manifested as a golden circle, and he had the ability to talk to the recently deceased, jump from place to place, and turn most of the undead to gold by touch or by some other mystical deviousness. If you haven't noticed, I think he had a thing for gold, but that may just be me, because after all, he _is _technically dead -"

Kanda shook his head and rubbed his temples with both middle fingers to keep them from suddenly sticking straight up at the man.

"That's _insane. _Nthanda is a kid. Not even a kid - he's a _baby. _How does a prince from God knows when become a baby?" Kanda growled, squeezing his eyes shut.

"Why, how else? Reincarnation."

Kanda's eyes shot open, and it was very quiet, save the clink of china on Benny's remaining teeth. He digested the information. He let it sit in his mind. He allowed his gray matter to soak in the old man's words. They replayed over and over, and he suddenly remembered the false memories, the sudden flashes of other places, the disorienting feeling of knowing something you shouldn't know because you're just too young to know it, like the silky feel of a woman's skin or the taut muscles of a warrior preparing for battle or the feeling of fear and desperation as you're about to die...

_That _was the kind of life Nthanda was destined - or, rather, doomed - to have?

"He was reincarnated. But how?" Kanda asked.

"He had the ability to teleport to other places, so I'm sure he managed to manipulate time as well. The tricky part is finding a woman to inhabit at the _exact _time of conception as well as reforming from grown man to zygote. Wish I could've figured out how he did that. Now, I haven't the foggiest idea _why, _of course. I only know the prophecy," Benny suggested, taking another loud sip of tea.

"What prophecy?!" Kanda finally shouted, standing up with his hands on the table.

The staff was suddenly in his face, mere inches from his nose. From his vantage point, he could see every whorl in the wood, glossy in the dim light of the hut. The dangling charm, a very wicked-looking arrowhead made of steel, almost seemed to tickle his chin. His breath fogged the metal, but his eyes continued to drill into the old man.

The staff had been by the door, nearly five paces away. The old man could move.

"You're in someone else's house, young man. Shouting will do you no good. Enjoy my hospitality while you have it," Benny urged with a smile, 'booping' Kanda on the nose with the end of the staff. The Exorcist wrinkled his nose and sat back down.

"I received a prophecy nearly a year and a half ago, I suspect very soon before Nthanda - is that his name? - was born," Benny continued congenially, tapping his blunted, arthritic fingers against the table. Kanda didn't deign to answer, merely stirring his tea aimlessly with a teaspoon made for someone half his size.

"What, no more threats?" Benny asked with a disappointed look. "I was quite looking forward to a bit of sparring with a hot-blooded young man with too much on his mind. Brings two people closer, don't you think?"

Kanda didn't look amused. Benny cleared his throat rather imperiously before beginning again.

"As I was saying, I received a prophecy. To put it simply, both of you are going to have to die. Again."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **'Allo, all! I am once again here, and I am once again posting. This is a little late (sorry Karina), but hopefully this can tide you over while I whip up the next chapter!

Rather than posting everyone's names, I've elected instead to thank each person individually (and privately) through message. I figured that privacy is important, and it's a little more personal that way anyhow. If you don't like it, be sure to shoot me a PM. If you do like it, send me a PM anyhow.

Now: discussion! _The story is pretty long by now - why did you stick with this story? How would you describe the narrative? What kinds of problems do you foresee for the gang? If you were in charge of this mission, what would you do? Did you enjoy Nthanda's/Lavinia's/Kanda's point of view? How badly are you hurting for another chapter? Are there any cool places in Africa you want to see show up in this story? _

Well, that's all for now! Tell me your thoughts, any of your thoughts, even if it's something irrelevant or just a simple hello!

God bless you, and keep writing!


	17. Follow Your Dreams

"...Again?"

"Yes, I believe that's what I said."

Kanda sat back in his tiny, wicker chair. It strained under his heavy body, creaking ominously as he tried to make sense of the old man's cheerfully cryptic words. _Die. _It was such a simple, short word for a complex, taxing process.

"Speak to me straight. Tell me everything. Don't leave anything out," Kanda said darkly, finally lifting his eyes to track the jolly man's face. Benny merely showed him the last few nubs of teeth left to him.

"I would do nothing else for a friend of the Order. I warn you, even I have no idea what this prophecy means. It did not come in words," Benny said solemnly, shakily pouring more tea into his tiny, chipped cup. For all his shaking and shivering, the man didn't so much as spill a single drop of tea. The European Branch had obviously taught him well.

"It came in dreams?" Kanda finished, leaning his cheek into one hand.

Benny bowed his head, nostrils flaring slightly. Raucously, he sneezed, and Kanda very nearly split the table in half out of surprise.

"Oh! Dear me, I beg your pardon. The ragweed is _most _terrible this time of year. Yes, dreams, as it were. Big dreams, small dreams, bits and pieces of prophecy. Mind you, I'm used to a voice possessing me to speak in the tongues of angels and then having it interpreted through one of the villagers. They tend to be more straightforward. Dreams are... finicky," Benny complained, shaking his head as if trying to dislodged water from his overlarge ears.

"Well, if it's dreams you had, I don't need to hear it. I've had enough of them to make me sick," Kanda grumbled.

"Ah, but the dreams themselves aren't important. It's the _interpretation__. _Which, I remind you, you do not have," Benny said, stirring in two scoops of sugar ponderously into his tea with the care of the aged.

Kanda sighed through his nose. He couldn't deny the old man's words. He had no idea what this prophecy actually was. All he knew was the voices in his sleep, the mirror-lake, the horrible feeling as he watched _her _suddenly fall over the edge of the cliffs like some present day Eurydice, vanishing before his eyes... No, he needed this little old man and his clairvoyance. He apparently had lots of practice at this sort of vague information gathering, and that was all good and dandy by him. Kanda didn't like depending on the words of sorcerers. Even more, he hated depending on the blatherings of those who claimed to see the future, but...

_The Loa said that she was sent here to protect the boy-king, who was sent to lift Africa from the unDeath somehow. She said it under duress, but how likely is it that she would tell a lie that's so close to his? _

"You don't trust me," Benny sighed.

"No," Kanda admitted.

Benny nodded.

"I didn't expect you to. You did not live this long believing the words of every man who crossed your way. But will you at least hear my interpretation?" the wizened man asked, enunciating every word carefully.

Kanda took this in hand, and he finally nodded. The dire swordsman held the tiny teacup between his long fingers, practically engulfing it, as he settled in for a long explanation. He _hated _having to sit and listen to someone explain something, as he'd found most people did it purely because they liked to hear themselves talk. He hoped Benny would be more forthright and be on with it. There were other things to do today.

"You dreamed of a few things, I'm sure, and I've dreamed a few things..." Benny began. He pulled out a deck of cards, but they weren't the cards Kanda was used to seeing. They were painted with a myriad of different scenes, but they seemed to shift every time he moved his eyes to look at them. Benny shuffled them with a dexterity belied by his arthritic hands.

"You dreamed this. The Lake," Benny said, laying down a card. Indeed, there was the lake Kanda had seen in his dreams, reflecting the sky so well that the line blurred between heaven and earth. "This is the gateway to the valley of the shadow of death. Of course, it is a purely metaphorical place, this valley, but it is most definitely a place in the human reckoning of the spirit. You appeared and perhaps even saw your guide. This is how I know you will die again. Don't worry, I'm quite sure it won't be permanent."

Benny drew another card from the deck with a flourish and laid it down. A red hand holding a knife, crossed behind someone's back.

"I dreamed this. The Knife. There will be a betrayal. Don't ask me who it is, I have not the slightest clue. You'll just have to wait and see who comes and stabs you all in the back. However, there was quite the spin on this card..." With a twist of his finger, the card twirled around and flipped back down. The hand was no longer bloody, and the blade was gone from the hilt of the knife.

"Your Judas will exact a bloodless betrayal and will firmly believe they do you no harm," Benny explained.

Next, he laid down another card: this time, a mirror held in a white hand.

"The Mirror is straightforward. You _must _face yourself. In your case, however, I seem to take this quite literally. If you're going to be dying, I'm guessing you'll be going to the land of Death, that horrid place between Abraham's Rest and the Deep Pit. Seeing as you've already died once before, you'll be facing yourself when you get there. Luckily, that means you'll have a guide. Which leads to my next image..." Benny said.

He tapped the deck, and a card flew out. It twirled before landing in Benny's hand, and the old man attempted a showman's flourish. Kanda's face did not so much as twitch. Disappointed in Kanda's lack of amusement, the old man laid the card shakily by the others.

It was a shadowy horde of men with spears, swords, shields, and pens. There were thousands of them, it seemed, packed into this tiny card.

"The Host. You will have a multitude of guides and much help. You've dreamed of them, I'd hoped?" Benny asked.

Kanda nodded solemnly, recalling the numerous army he'd seen in his dreams, Kanda at their forefront with Nthanda in his arms.

"It's a double-edged sword. It's neither a good nor ill dream - just, that you will have many voices vying for your attention and many swords at your disposal. You will have all the guides and counselors you could want. Unfortunately, some guides are not as sure of their path as they'd like you to believe, and some voices hinder more than help, for all their intentions." Benny tapped the card, and the army split in two.

"Your army of helpers will be numerous, but divided between two places. You may not have dreamed this, but I have, and it's... interesting," Benny muttered.

"Interesting?" Kanda asked sourly.

"Well... _vague. _I don't quite like vague," Benny tutted. Kanda snorted in response. A clairvoyant who didn't like _vague. _How funny.

Benny pulled another card. He laid down a bright colored cord, snapped.

"The Cord. This is my dream. Someone in your party will die, and it will come very suddenly. It is the snap of a short life, not yet ripe. However..."

The card was pushed slightly forward, and Kanda looked at it, a little tired of Benny's parlor tricks. What he saw, though, chilled him. The cord formed a noose, a length of it twisted into a lover's knot. Like the prior picture, it had snapped.

"They will take their own life," Benny said with a slightly sad smile. "Unfortunate. It will be someone who loves you dearly."

That was a narrow list. Kanda swallowed.

"Next!" Benny said cheerfully. He produced yet another card from behind Kanda's ear, and he waggled his eyebrows.

Kanda gave him an unimpressed look. _Allen _had better magic tricks.

Benny laid down another card: a stone fireplace with a cheery fire cooking a meal.

"A good dream. The Hearth. It means that you, sir, will most definitely go home. Home, however, is very liquid when it comes to prophecy. It could mean the land of your birth, the place you feel most comfortable, or where you live currently. In any case, it is the sign of journey's end, things turned to rights. It does come with a catch, though, as these things are wont to do," Benny muttered.

He flipped the card, and on the other side the hearthstones were split. The fire crackled merrily, and the pot still boiled, but everything was a cooler shade of blue now, a little bit more somber. A pair of boots peeked behind the hearth.

"You will never _stay _home. Your feet shall walk the earth, but your heart shall dwell somewhere else entirely. You may go to the place you call home frequently, but you will never actually be able to stay there. It is the price you will pay for finding the end of your journey. A bittersweet thing," Benny sighed, tapping his staff against the floor.

Kanda stared at the six cards on the table.

_The Lake. You shall die and go to the land of the Dead. _

_The Mirror. You must face yourself, as you were. _

_The Host. You will have helpers, but not all of them will be helpful. They are or will be split in two._

_The Knife. You will be betrayed, but it will be bloodless and in conviction. _

_The Cord. Someone who loves you will die by their own hand. _

_The Hearth. You will find home, but you will never stay there._

This was the reason he hated prophecies so much. It could never be _just _good news.

* * *

><p>It felt good to take off her shoes and wiggle her toes a bit. After all that terrible walking (not a single person would carry her!), she'd immediately demanded to be taken to her remaining servant. However, much to her dismay, she'd found they did not speak a lick of English. She'd found Din, had him translate, and he had reluctantly repeated her words back to several of the women. They'd led her to this tiny hut made of mud and straw and reeds(how was it possible to live inside of filth?), and she'd immediately laid eyes on Florenzo.<p>

Their names, when she'd bought them, were Florenzo, Antonio, and Julio. She'd begged her father to buy them, three debtors who'd fled to Africa only to be caught by slavers, as they were whipped on to the platform. Her father, no doubt, had thought she'd wanted servants of her own rather than use the help that were just around the manse, but in reality she could not bear to see them swelter in the sun, far from home, wearing next to nothing. There was no way her father would allow her to buy one of the dark-skinned people, not even one of the women, but she could most definitely save these three poor men. It was what a _true _Comtesse would do... one like her mother, bless her soul.

They'd served her faithfully ever since. She'd long ago given them their freedom, but they continued on in her employ, and she used her allowance to pay them.

Florenzo had brown hair. She'd heard he'd used a tent pole to carry his supplies and as a walking stick, and she could see it leaning against the wall by his bed. He was bandaged across the leg, and his hair was a right mess. He was a skinny man, without a lot of meat on his bones despite the rich cooking Lavinia lived on. He'd talked to her for a little while after she'd asked how he was. Not long after, he feel asleep, so she had taken to sitting by his bed, taking off her shoes, and enjoying the sensation of wiggling her toes.

However, she quickly grew bored of the activity, and she began to count her many blisters. And then there were all the nasty welts from the mosquitoes! The blasted insects were eating her alive, it seemed, and the darker it got, the more persistent they became.

The wilderness was _such _a nasty place! And these people lived here!

There was the sharp crunch of boots on gravel, and Lavinia quickly stood up on her sore feet. She looked for the nearest weapon, sure it must be some kind of intruder. After all, one of these people must be looking to steal whatever things Florenzo had left on him! Din must have guarded him day and night, that kind man, to keep the thieves and wretches off him!

She snatched the tent pole, with its sharp end, and she stood with it clutched in both hands, ready for a fight -

Only to face her beloved (and dirty) prince.

"Oh!" Lavinia said, trying to hide the stick behind her back. "I had not thought you to come back so soon."

Kanda stared at her for a little while (probably admiring her looks - she looked so, er, _shapely _in the loose clothes she'd borrowed, so she told herself). He jerked his head towards the servant on the bed.

"I need to talk to him," Kanda said gruffly, and Lavinia felt a pinch of ire.

How rude. He wanted to wake the poor man, and besides that _Lavinia _was the highest born in the hut and therefore some courtesies should be shown to her first! A simple hello would've sufficed.

But, of course, her love was just tired and grumpy. After all, that walking would make anyone incredibly angry. Never the less, she could not allow this. She was the Comtesse, and they must uphold society!

"Can't you see he needs his rest? What could be so important you need to talk to him _now?" _she asked, hoping to sound regal and only achieving peevish. She put her hand on her hips, nearly smacking Kanda in the hip with her stick. She swallowed and kept in mind it was longer than she'd thought.

He gave her a dour look and said, "I want to find out where the rest of the Akuma went. We could be attacked."

"B-but he wouldn't know anything about that. And shush it! He's _sleeping,_" she tried to stress, pointing to him with her stick, and nearly whacking Florenzo in the face.

Oh. Right.

"He won't be sleeping for long, if you keep waving that thing around," Kanda quipped.

Lavinia sheepishly tossed the stick to the floor.

Now, the sound of a stick hitting hard-packed dirt doesn't sound much like gunfire, but it sounded like it enough to send Florenzo into a whirl of bedding and limbs.

"Come here, you blighted beggars, all of you!" Florenzo shouted, limping to his feet and grabbing the stick off the ground with crazed eyes.

Lavinia and Kanda only stared at Florenzo in surprise.

"It's just us, Florenzo, there's no need to, uh... to point your weapon," Lavinia suggested gently, taking the tent pole out of the man's hands.

With a slight hobble, Florenzo sat down with a great sigh, putting his head in his hands. Kanda gave Lavinia a searching look, but all she could do was shrug her shoulders. Neither of them were quite sure what to do with shell-shocked servants.

Kanda knelt to Florenzo's level, and he asked quietly, "Did you see any of the creatures that attacked you? While you were traveling?"

Florenzo shook his head, pulling his hands and away and sighing. "No, I saw nothing. No creatures, just those slavers. I was... lucky."

Lavinia felt pity well up in her heart as she watched Florenzo furiously wipe away at his eyes. Those men had been like brothers. They had traveled together for years, and they'd served her faithfully for nearly two years. She bit her lip, and she tapped Kanda on the shoulder and jerked her head towards the door.

Once the two were outside, she asked, "Is there nothing you can do? Surely you can go and get the other two -"

"With what? Me and whose army? I know better than to mess with slavers. He's right, he's lucky. _My _mission is to get Nthanda to Cairo. Your mission was to follow me. Theirs was to save your hide," Kanda spat at her, and she seemed to stumble on her very thoughts.

It was true. She'd dragged them along with her into this foreign wilderness expecting excitement, and love, and animals, and wonders. Well, she'd had a bellyful of excitement and animals, and not near enough of the other two to justify what had happened to Antonio and Julio. In her haste to chase this dream, she'd possibly thrown two of her good men into slavery all over again. There was nothing to do but comfort the one faithful servant she had left. Just like a real Comtesse would do.

"I beg your pardon," she said breathlessly, rushing around him and swallowing tears as she walked back into the hut.

Kanda stared after her, suddenly feeling heaviness in his chest. The girl was holding Florenzo's hand while the man sobbed, the pansy. Tears would do them no good, but for some reason Kanda envied him his ability to cry. He knew he'd been harsh on them, but this was a hard world. They were both soft-handed people, without calluses. Every wound was a fresh one. He'd been hit so many times he hardly felt the blow anymore.

There was a great cry from one of the men towards the edge of the village, and Kanda's head snapped around to the sound. A young man ran with a great smile on his face, shouting something unintelligible, but whatever it was must be good news. The other men suddenly broke out in cheers and whoops while the women hugged each other and clapped their hands. All of them began to rush in the direction the young man was pointing.

"What's going on?" Lavinia asked, walking behind Kanda with Florenzo leaning on her shoulders.

"No idea," Kanda said tersely with an edge of hesitance.

They walked towards the great commotion, feet shuffling in the dirt with heavy hearts and minds while the celebration continued around them.

At the front of the crowd, Din stood with Nthanda in his arms. The baby was still asleep, despite the noise, and Kanda sidled alongside the brightly smiling Finder.

"What's this about?" Kanda asked.

"One of the boys saw sohme o' the village women and a few men walking back towards the village. Looks like they ehscaped from the slavers somehow. Dis is... amazin'. Fifteen o' them got aweh, looks like," Din cheerfully said, clapping Kanda on the back. "Looks like Miz Vanya did bang-up johb up dere."

"Tch," was all Kanda was willing to say.

"Wait... that's... that's Julio! And Antonio! _Florenzo, look! Can't you see them?! Look!" _Lavinia screeched in Kanda's ear, and he slapped a hand over the offended side. Boy could she _yell. _

And then, she was off running, leaving Kanda to support the limping Florenzo as she raced across the fifty yards or so that separated her from the rest of the group. For a woman barefoot, she was making good speed towards her two servants, who looked hearty and hale if travel-worn - until she tripped over a root and fell face-first into the dirt. The entire village gave a singular wince of sympathy.

Lavinia got up, brushed herself off self-consciously in an effort to look more regal, and then continued at a more stately (and careful) strut to greet her fellows.

"She is sohmet'in else, ain' she?" Din muttered to Kanda as she hugged the two smelly men.

"No kidding," Kanda grumbled, shifting a sobbing Florenzo as the man tried to keel over from happiness.

* * *

><p>"She din' cohme back," Din said gravely.<p>

The fire flickered in front of them uncertainly as the wind picked up through the trees. There was a grand celebration going on, with people laughing and dancing to music, but there were dark words to be heard. The trees rustled as if to join the people, but Kanda could hear the ominous moan as the wind whistled in the branches. The evening had begun to fall, and it grew dark.

"Did you find out what happened?" Kanda asked, hand on the hilt of his sword.

"No' much," Din sighed, rubbing his chin. He had begun to grow a shadow of beard, dark stubble spreading across his jaw. His eyes were bright in his face, the whites almost orange in the light of the fire.

Words echoed in Kanda's head, warring against each other, not with swords but with reasons. He had to make a decision, and soon.

In his pocket, the washcloth sat like a leaden reminder. Behind him, he could hear the three fools laughing with their young charge, the idiot girl. And among that, the smells of food, laughter, shouts, and drums.

But Vanya was not here.

If he was honest, a part of him had been banking on finding her. Din, he'd been here since the beginning. Ellis was gone, and he dared not entertain the hope of finding her. And Vanya... she could _fight. _That was what made her so valuable. With her, he'd have a back up if anything ever happened to him. She'd been his last hope, if things went so far south that he couldn't get himself out again, or heaven forbid, if -

He couldn't even think it.

But he had to. He _must. _The possibility existed that Nthanda could, at any time, die.

The hand tightened around the hilt of the sword a bit more.

He had depended on Vanya's strength and ability too much. And, if he was honest, he'd depended on her company too much as well.

"You tinkin' of leavin' her behin'," Dingane said, a statement. There was no wiggle room, no space for reasons or justifications.

"The mission comes first," Kanda almost whispered.

Din nodded his head. He fished around in his pocket, and he walked to Kanda, the young man still looking into the fire with faraway eyes.

"Whatevah decision you make... Take dis anyways," Din said, pressing something into Kanda's hand, looking the man in the eyes. Kanda's fingers curled around as the two men stood there a moment, and finally the younger nodded to the older.

Kanda stared at the object in his hand, letting it dangle from its iron-bead chain. The crucifix glimmered in the light.

The Exorcist looked behind him at the multitude of happy, clapping people. They were free of their chains, unburdened by the weight of slavery. Yet, there was no chain heavier than the chain of duty. The iron in his hands felt so heavy, like it would drag him to the center of the earth if he let it. He had to complete the mission, and nothing else mattered. _No one _else mattered.

"This little tyke wanted to see you," a familiar, old voice said, and Kanda looked down.

Benny handed over Nthanda, who squirmed and wriggled like a live worm on a hook. He gave an almighty pout at the old man and scrunched his face as he was passed off to Kanda. The boy took his customary place leaning on Kanda's shoulder in his arms, tugging a strand of long, black hair.

"Thanks," Kanda said, distracted, as he swayed from side to side, a habit of his to put the kid to sleep.

"You're very welcome," Benny said with a slight gleam in his eye as he toddled off to go and chase one of the village women.

Nthanda looked at Kanda and babbled, waving the hand holding his hair.

"I have nothing to give you, so don't you even start."

Nthanda pouted, and he babbled some more, tugging Kanda's hair. Kanda winced as he untangled his hair from the baby's firm grasp.

"_Stop, _you brat," Kanda complained, but Nthanda was adamant to get his point across -

_her lined face in the light playing peek a boo. He didn't know why that game was so much fun, but it was like magic to see her disappear and reappear. He already knew she was behind those wrinkled hands but it was still fun to clap and gurgle when she _

Kanda stared at Nthanda as the kid began to cry, still pouting. The Exorcist slowly sat down, staring at the crying baby in his arms. Finally, he pulled the washcloth out of his pocket and gave it to the babe, who stared at it and threw it. It nearly landed in the fire, and Kanda almost slapped Nthanda's hand for that. Instead, he dragged it over with his boot, and he gave it back to the baby.

"You _keep _it, moron. It's all we've got left of her," Kanda grumbled, holding Nthanda's hand around the fabric. The baby only stared and sniffled before sticking a corner of it in his mouth and leaning against Kanda, lazily lolling. The swordsman swayed from side to side, unconsciously in rhythm with the drums behind him. Several times, women came over and asked him something in their tongue, but he waved them off, sending them giggling back to their ladies. Lavinia, thank the Lord, had not tried to drag him towards the festivities. Perhaps she sensed his foul mood.

Kanda stared at the crucifix in his palm, polished smooth by thumbs and a smith's work. It was rough hewn, like it'd been made from nails, and it was heavy.

Nthanda blearily woke up and stared at Kanda, drooling a little. The man wiped it off with the washcloth in the kid's hand as the baby fussed and rubbed his eyes. The sun had almost set by now.

"Ba-ba?" Nthanda asked.

"Baba?" Kanda asked back, though with a different tone.

"Ba-ba! Bababaya!" Nthanda complained, yanking hair again. "Baba! Baba!"

"_Ouch! _Quit it, you little - What is it you want? What's Baba?" Kanda almost shouted, frustrated.

Nthanda then began to cry, and Kanda hunched down, biting his lip. He sighed in frustration as Nthanda wailed and wailed, still tugging Kanda's hair.

"Crackers? Water? _What do you want?" _

Nthanda gave a last, sad tug and -

_Russian flowing like spring water over him. Even though he didn't understand a word there was a lyrical flow to the words that put him to sleep, lulling him as her face swam before him, with that black-brown hair. Her face was pale as the moon, but he didn't care about all that, just that the story would continue and her arms would keep holding him and rocking him to sleep, where he felt so safe and so warm _

No, no, no. This was all wrong. He couldn't. He _wouldn't. _Not even to make this kid happy. The mission came first, and the mission was to get Nthanda to Cairo. They weren't even halfway there, and...

**You will need all the help you can get. **

He would be one man against so many people. Slavers were notorious for cruelty, and he couldn't risk himself.

**You owe her a debt already.**

She'd given her life to be a CROW, and it was her fault anyways for freeing these people and getting herself caught in the process. The least she could've done was not get caught.

**She's a part of your team now. **

He had no team. He had a bunch of people who, for one reason or another, decided to follow him.

**He needs a mother. **

Kanda sat, staring at Nthanda. The kid had tired himself out, and now he was asleep. The sun was almost down and gone, and the world was growing dark. Kanda leaned his head against the child's, and he sighed.

He still recalled the rose sight he'd once claimed, once upon a time. His past self was probably no less grumpy, no less hard, but... the world had looked so different. There were possibilities. _People _were possibilities. They weren't burdens, and they weren't liabilities. If he had been who he was back then, Vanya wouldn't have been an asset, she would have been a kindred spirit. They had shared thoughts, sometimes unwillingly, and they had fought together, bled together, guarded one another... He'd saved her skin, she'd saved his. Whether they liked it or not, they were bound by this small child he held, as the kid's parents for the time being.

**You know the old saying. The best thing a father can do for his child is to love its mother. **

_Love is an **awfully **strong term. _

Kanda glanced at the iron cross in his fist, and he stared at the darkened sky.

And finally, to God, he said, "Forgive me."

* * *

><p>He decided to leave in the early of the morning when he knew they wouldn't be awake. He had a few days' food, the map Ellis had left them with her blood fingerprints on them, Mugen at his hip, and a bottle of water. If he went alone, it would be that much easier. He'd be lighter on his feet, quieter in the long run. Stealth would be the name of the game.<p>

The morning mist covered the ground, even in the dark. It gave the world a desperate, hungry atmosphere, especially with the jackals baying in the dark somewhere. Kanda crept through the village silently, scarf around his midsection and bag slung low at his back. His footsteps were whisper-soft, and he slipped through the remains of last night's revelry unseen and unheard.

And then he _had _to run into her.

Lavinia nearly slammed into him, the mist so thick that he'd somehow missed her plodding footsteps. In his haste to leave, he'd almost bowled her over, and he only had time enough to slap a hand over her mouth to keep her from screaming. She flailed and tried to shout, squirming before Kanda hissed, "Shut _up _already, you're going to wake the village! It's me."

He let her go when it was obvious she wasn't about to fight.

"What are you doing out here so late?" she asked incredulously. Her hair was mussed from sleep, and without her skin creams and make-up, she looked a fine mess. She wasn't _ugly, _but she was... different. Her clothes were rumpled, and she wore a borrowed pair of boots. She smelled very faintly of pee.

"None of your business. What are _you _doing out here? Don't you know you could be eaten by jackals?" he asked drily, though the latter information was more to spook her than warn her.

Lavinia's face drained of color, her shrapnel scars standing out in the false pre-dawn light.

"You lie! Besides, that's none of _your _business!... I, er, heard the call of the wild - "

"You peed on your boot, didn't you?"

"It's awfully difficult to pee without a commode! I've never had to squat like some kind of savage!"

"Thank God I'm a man..." Kanda muttered heavenward. "I can aim."

With that, he began to walk off, but it wasn't long before he heard the massive footsteps of the clubfoot behind him.

"Go back to bed," Kanda commanded, turning around.

"You're about to do something dangerous, aren't you? You're going to go and save that woman! Well, I'm coming with you! And you can't stop me," Lavinia professed, drawing herself up to her full five-foot-seven.

Kanda rubbed his temples as he faced her. How could he put this nicely...?

"You're going to get me killed. And you're going to get _yourself _killed. And raped. And it may not be in that order," Kanda stated.

Lavinia colored at the mention of rape, spluttering about how a man would never dare take someone of her complexion without first asking and all other such nonsense, and Kanda tried not to hang himself with the rope in his bag at that instant. _Someone who loves you will commit suicide; well, **I **love me an awful lot!_

"_Go home. _Please," Kanda interrupted, tacking on the pleasantry on the end in the hopes that she'd consider it.

"No," Lavinia said with more than a bit of relish. She crossed her arms and spread her legs into a very solid stance, and Kanda wondered how he had ever managed to get into this mess.

He peeked over her shoulder, and he muttered, "Is that a jackal?"

Lavinia's eyes went wide as duck's eggs, and she spun around to look where he was looking. Much to her surprise, Kanda grabbed the waistband of her pants and yanked them down to her ankles. He shoved her forward, and she fell into the leaves as he tied her hands. He took the scarf, dumped the supplies he had in them, and used it as a gag just as she began to shout.

He sat her down against a tree, and she glared at him with squinted, green eyes.

"You should've gone home when I told you to," Kanda said as he tied her to the tree. "They'll come and get you in the morning."

With that done, he began yet again. And by God, he might've even went with the smallest of evil smiles.

* * *

><p>It took him the better part of three hours to track the path the men and women had taken to get back to the village. On his way, he'd picked up another follower, the Ridge-back that had refused to leave them be, but the dog was quieter than Lavinia. The dog could follow the trail, and it wasn't long before he'd found the slaver's camp.<p>

It was a ramshackle thing, tents set up for the men and the slaves sitting huddled together, trying to sleep in their chains. They were chained neck to neck, foot to foot, and hand to hand. It was a wonder that Vanya had managed to get the few men and women out that she had. Most of the ones in the crowd were darker-skinned, so it wouldn't be hard to find Vanya, who was the color of sour milk. He rubbed the dog's neck as the two of them sat on the ridge overlooking the camp.

Yet, the longer he scanned the huddled masses of slaves, the more disheartened he became. _None _of these were white skinned Eastern Europeans. She'd stick out like a sore thumb. Where could she possibly be? Perhaps she was in that Loa form, and it was making it harder to find her. He had to get closer, so he could see their faces. It was hard to get a good vantage point, with it being so dark.

He crept closer to them, the sun's light barely beginning to paint the land. He didn't have much longer before he would be seen.

The faces all looked the same. They were dark, haggard, and dust-filled. They'd been on the road a long time. These men had treated them harshly, and for a moment Kanda felt a bit of righteous indignation. Mugen's blade was sharper than any sword - chains like these would be butter before its edge.

Before he could begin on his personal crusade, he saw her under the ridge. His hands seemed to freeze, and he could feel his skin crawl with sympathy pains. He licked his lips, his hand tightening around Mugen's hilt.

They'd shackled her hands with iron and driven a stake into the ground around the chain. Her back was bleeding and raw, open to the elements. Her hair was a matted mess of blood and dirt, and they'd stripped her of almost every scrap of clothes on her. She lay facedown on the ground, and for a moment he was scared that she was dead. However, her chest slightly expanded, and he could breathe easy.

On padded feet, he raced across the yard to her, walking the last several feet.

She flinched away from him, curling into a ball. He stared at her for a moment, assessing the damage. He saw no bones, so that was always a good sign, but she was going to be in a lot of pain. He quickly unbuttoned his shirt, keeping an eye on the tents across from him.

"Hey. It's me. Don't move," Kanda commanded in a whisper, tearing up the stake out of the ground.

Vanya looked up at him, and he took a deep breath. For all of a moment, he saw so much hope in her face. Tear tracks had worked white rivers down her face through the dirt, and her nose was bloody, both eyes blacked, but there was no hiding the surprise and relief.

"Don't think I'm doing this for you. Nthanda misses you," Kanda spat as he started to work through the chain with Mugen.

"Nice to see jyou too," Vanya whispered sardonically, folding her arms over her bare chest in embarrassment. Kanda threw his shirt at her, and she awkwardly put her arms through the sleeves, leaving her back free. She looked over her shoulder.

"I'll get them. You go," Kanda assured.

Vanya nodded solemnly, her face once again a mask. No doubt that had ticked off the slave traders more than anything. He wondered how long it had taken to break her.

Kanda crept over to the remaining slaves, quietly waking them each, one by one, finger to his lips, before cutting the chains on each. To his dismay, he saw Vanya doing much the same thing with some fell kind of magic, snapping the shackles apart. Tight-lipped, he worked through his row to get to her.

"I told you to _get." _

"I em not done wit zem yet."

"What, do you have a death wish?"

The look on her face was one of chagrin and sheepishness. Kanda gawked at her.

"Are you serious? _You came out here trying to die?" _

"Vat else vas I supposed to do? I hed lost jyou end ze baby. I hed no idea jyou vere alive," Vanya said defensively.

"Next time, tell someone, that way I don't have to waste all my time and energy saving you and your sorry -"

Gunfire cut their camaraderie short as a trader came out of his tent, the morning's light completely up now.

Kanda stared at the blooming red spot on his shirt and sighed. It never rains, but boy does it pour.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** Heeeeeey! Another day, another chapter, another part of Kanda's African saga. My current situation is a little shaky at the moment, so my updates will be more sporadic... again. Let's hope that it won't be too spotty.

Anyhow, big thanks to my guest and karina001 for reviewing the story! They had great depth of thought and they were a joy to read!

Now: discussion! _Is the pace of the story moving on alright? Would you be willing to stick with this story until they got to Cairo? Are the characters believable, and if so, how? If not, why? Do you have any ships so far? Whose perspective do you like the most? Do you think Kanda has grown as a character, or is he static? Is this version of Kanda close to the canon, or has he grown to be his own character in his own right? What sort of future problems can you foresee? What do you think of the prophecies that were given to him? Who are they about? _

Anyways, that's all for now. God bless you, and happy reading!


	18. Marco

Kanda didn't feel the pain. He'd been shot more times than he cared to remember. If it weren't for the fact his chest was wet, he probably wouldn't have noticed it. However, it was a little harder to hide the slaver with the gun standing almost twenty paces away.

"Move it!" Kanda ordered roughly, hauling up the nearest slave. Most of the ones who'd been freed earlier had made off into the woods at the first chance. There were a few who were sitting in rows, most of them waiting for the rest of their family to be cut free. As a single body, they all seemed to get up in one motion and begin to run pellmell towards the ridge.

There was more gunfire, and Kanda did his best to block bullets with Mugen's edge. They were smaller than Akuma bullets, and perhaps faster. It was more of a challenge, but the blood singing in his veins blotted out any doubt he had about his abilities. Right now, there was just him and the men with guns. He was the only thing standing between the poor people running off with chains about their appendages and these kidnappers.

Suddenly, like a diving falcon, Vanya vaulted off the ridge behind Kanda, striking one of the men in the head with a single foot. The others turned on her, but Kanda kept their attention as he swept up the dust with quick strikes of his sword. For a time, it seemed like the two were winning against them, but it wasn't long before Vanya tired from her wounds, and Kanda began to feel the sting of the bullet in his shoulder.

The two were pressed back against the ridge, and finally Kanda knew, with that predatory instinct that had been wired into him, that they had to _go. _Vanya's eyes were bloodshot, and her hands were shaking. The edges of his shirt were pink where they'd brushed against her back, and his own chest heaved great breaths as the slavers drew closer.

Kanda grabbed Vanya's wrist, and he dashed around the ridge, vaulting up the dirt side as loud gunshots rang off after them. He was slower than usual - a bullet ate into his thigh, and another burrowed into his back. Vanya shouted as she stumbled and fell behind him, and Kanda hauled her to her feet roughly, pounding feet against the ground.

And then, Kanda realized they were surrounded. Men had circled over the ridge, realizing that was the only way out. The gunners leered in the trees, shouting to each other in their native tongues.

"We have to run," Kanda said breathlessly.

"I... can't...just… leave me... leave," Vanya gasped with a heavy, stony-eyed glance.

For a moment he considered it.

Quickly, he scooped her up and over his shoulder and began to run through the trees, weaving to dodge bullets that seemed to zing past his very ears. His leg hurt magnificently, and his back protested as the bead inside drove deeper. He gritted his teeth and aimed for a large boulder that was sunk into the ground, a sort of make-shift cave pressed between the dirt and the underside. With a skid, he landed into it.

It gave them some breathing room. Kanda had a clear vantage point ahead of him so no one could sneak up that way. They were protected from behind, and the men were wary enough of the two that they didn't dare press too close. Kanda winced as he recalled ricocheting a bullet, quite on accident, into someone's femur.

Of course, that was their fault. They shouldn't have shot at him.

"Jyou should hef left me," Vanya complained, rolling off his shoulders. Thankfully, she'd stayed still the whole mad-dash to the boulder, but probably only because she was so tired. Otherwise, she would've pitched a fit.

"Taking your certain death away from you was too good an opportunity to annoy you," Kanda panted. He inspected his bare shoulder and winced. It was bleeding profusely. It would be a whole day before it healed over. That'd be annoying, too. If he didn't remove it, his body would just grow _around _it, and that could cause other complications.

Vanya leaned her head against his shoulder, and he stiffened. She smelled like blood, sweat, dirt, and something else, almost floral. Oddly, he'd never considered the fact she might wear perfume. She didn't seem the type.

"Do not vorry. I do not like jyou. I'm just tired," Vanya reassured as she shut her eyes and panted. The shirt hung on her tiny frame like a sail on a scarecrow.

They sat there, breathing, for several minutes. It seemed that the assault was not moving forward. Kanda removed the water bottle from its bag, happy to see that a bullet hadn't punched a hole in it. He popped it open with his teeth and drank deeply. Vanya extended a hand wearily for it, and Kanda looked down at her with a flat expression.

"You're the one who got us into this mess. You don't get water."

Vanya snatched the bottle out of his hands, and he half-heartedly resisted. She took a long drink and sat with her head back against the boulder. She turned her head and looked over to the side suspiciously, eying the forest.

"Ve vill need to move soon," Vanya muttered. "Ve cannot stay here forever."

Kanda sighed heavily. She was right, but the problem was, he'd finally sat _down. _Now he was doubly disinclined to get back up. Though most people knew him as the tireless warrior, he could be just as lazy as the rest of his Exorcist team. Now that he was sitting, he was too tired to actually stand.

Nevertheless, he understood he needed to get back up. He bent his knees, wincing, and tried to stand -

Only to almost fall over. He cursed vehemently, and Vanya's face paled. Slowly, he lowered himself back down, and he inspected the back of his left leg. It was bleeding, sure, and the bullet had pierced through the meat... but it had also clipped his hamstring. With this final heave to his feet, it had finally snapped. It wasn't a life-threatening wound, so his body didn't heal it immediately. It would be another few hours before it would be in any usable shape.

"Jyou cannot valk? _I _cannot valk either. Ve are both dead," Vanya said with a completely deadpan face, as if realizing they didn't have enough change for the trolley home.

As if to accentuate the point, a gunshot rang out, followed by the _zzzzzzip _of a bullet somewhere nearby. The two winced.

They looked at each other, realizing the bleak situation they were in. And, surprisingly, Vanya began a low chuckle. It soon began a tumble of a laugh, a true laugh. It was the first time Kanda had ever heard her make such a sound.

He snorted, more amused than anything else.

"What's so funny?" he asked gravely.

"Ve are two of ze best soldiers ze Order ken shell out, but ve cannot bebysit to save our sorry skeens," Vanya explained. "Jyou should've left me, I should've looked for jyou, we should've stohck together, jyou should've stayed wiz ze beby... but no. Ve sit here, waiting to get shot." She threw her hands up and immediately winced, breaking through her mask.

Kanda couldn't really argue with that.

"We're crappy parents," Kanda muttered.

"Yes, ve are," Vanya muttered.

There was a lull, and for a few moments the scene could've been mistaken for peaceful. There was only the sound of the birds and the insects, chittering and chirping. And then, voices pierced the quiet, and the two stiffened again.

There was the faint sound of leaves rustling, and the two peered into the forest, wondering if their death was currently approaching. Instead, a dog, a Ridge-back, inched his way through the undergrowth. He whined nasally, more air than sound, and Kanda sighed with relief. He'd forgotten the dog. Kanda beckoned with a single hand, and the dog approached a little faster.

The dog slobbered and panted by the pair, licking Kanda's face happily. Kanda tried to keep his face out of the line of fire, but it wasn't long before he finally had to shove the dog's head away.

"Quit that, you mangy cur," Kanda grumbled, though he did give a slightly affectionate fondle to the dog's ears.

"Do jyou think he could send a message to ze village?" Vanya suddenly wondered out loud.

Kanda considered it. He had no paper, and he didn't know if the dog was trained enough to follow an order like that. He chewed it over, digging through his bag of supplies. His rope and scarf had been used to tie up Lavinia, the idiot girl. He had no idea what he could give the dog that would signify that he was still alive. He scratched his head in thought, and it suddenly occurred to him what he could use as a message.

He groaned internally at the thought. It had taken nigh on _months _to get his hair to grow back to it's normal length after Komui set it on fire.

Kanda dug around in his bag for two hair-ties, took a decent chunk of his hair in his hand, and he sighed as he stared at it. He knew it was for their survival, but...

"Are jyou serious? It's only hair. It vill grow back," Vanya complained in a whispered hiss.

"Fine, fine," Kanda grumbled, but he still hesitated as he brought Mugen's edge up against the solid thumb-thick strand.

"Gif me zat," Vanya muttered as she snatched Mugen out of his hand, took almost all of her ratted, dark hair and sliced the whole mass off. Kanda stared in horror as she took the hair-ties and tied them on each end of the chunk of hair. She gave it to Kanda, and he gave her an odd look.

"I do not kere about my hair near as much as jyou do. I keep it short," Vanya muttered as she leaned her head on her knees and closed her eyes. "Less to manage."

Kanda handed the bloodied mass of hair to the dog, and the dog reluctantly accepted it. Kanda grabbed the dog by the ruff and said, "You bring it back to the village. You hear me? Go find Din and Nthanda, the baby. Go get 'em."

Like a shot, the dog ran off into the underbrush, too small to be considered a person or a target.

"We just entrusted our lives to a dog who's not even trained," Kanda grumbled. Things were looking up.

* * *

><p>They sat there for a long time. Every now and again, Kanda would peer around the boulder, deflect a few of the bullets shot at them, and then retreat. Vanya's condition worsened as the day grew hotter still, and it wasn't long before Kanda had to fan her back to keep flies away from the raw flesh. He had brought bandages, but this needed so much more than just a simple gauze patch. His shoulder was also in a bad way, and he had to shift his sword hand to his left. He could fight with his opposite hand, but he was nowhere near as accurate.<p>

"Water?" Vanya asked, croaking.

Kanda wordlessly handed it over. They were running out. He'd used some to wash off the dirt from Vanya's back. The girl caught more infections than a leper in a trash heap.

"Why did you want to die?" Kanda asked suddenly.

"I... failed my -"

"That's a lie."

Vanya leaned her forehead against her knees and wrapped her arms around her thighs. It was quiet as she composed her answer.

"If not for jyou... for Nthanda... I do not vant to live, not anymore. After jyou, there is nothing for me. Not vithout Alexei," she said, her voice cracking. "I joined CROW because Alexei vas chosen and I qualified. I did not vant to be alone, vithout Papa. I vas young. Naive. And now... he vas all I had, and now I hef nothing."

Kanda quietly sat and listened, fidgeting. To be honest, he wasn't sure why he'd asked the question. Perhaps it was the unbearable waiting that did it. Maybe it was the fact they were at the end of their rope, and he might as well spend the time talking. Or maybe he was just curious about why _anyone _would want to go into that dark night willingly. Kanda had fought tooth and nail to stay alive. Vanya seemed to be fighting tooth and nail to die.

"That's pathetic."

Vanya looked up in surprise, staring angrily at Kanda.

"You have actual _talent. _You're not an idiot. You're one of the few people on the planet who actually deserves to live. You could actually do something on this wet rock, and you want to die because your brother was offed by the universe? Boo frickin' hoo. You martyr types think you're _so _noble, killing yourselves for the good of others. Well, you're no good to anyone if you're dead," Kanda continued heatedly. "It's a lot easier to quit than to keep going, moron. You're not doing anyone any favors."

The muscles in her jaw worked angrily as she muttered curses in Russian, tears streaming down her face as she turned away from him. Kanda merely 'tch'ed.

Another gunshot went off in the forest, this one closer. And then, silence, only punctuated by Vanya's occasional sniffle.

"You know the reason why Exorcists are the only ones allowed to kill Akuma?" Kanda asked quietly.

"No," Vanya answered after a moment.

"We set the soul free to heaven. Anything else just destroys it."

"...And?"

"Tch. Put two and two together. It means there's an afterlife."

"Are jyou trying to _dissuade _me from suicide, or _convince _me to commit?"

"At this point, it doesn't matter which seeing as we'll both be dead in a minute."

Of course, Kanda was acutely aware that while Vanya would stay dead, he wouldn't. Not after 586 seconds. That just wasn't fair.

There was another pregnant pause.

"Who did jyou lose?" Vanya asked, shifting his shirt closer to her chest. The past hour or so had been highly uncomfortable in that regard. Though the shirt was huge, Kanda was only too aware what was underneath. He'd caught glimpses, but he'd tried his hardest not to let her know he'd seen anything. He was a lot of things, but a peeping tom was not one of them.

"None of your business."

Vanya rolled her eyes.

"Vill it matter if jyou tell me?"

"Only if we live."

"I thought zat was a remote possibility?"

"A possibility is still a possibility."

There was a rustling in the brush only twenty paces west of the boulder, and Kanda cautiously got up on his good leg. He was down one leg and one arm, but he could still block whatever was coming. A man suddenly ran out from the bush with a yell, and Kanda cursed under his breath in two different languages. The man squeezed off several shots from a handgun, but Kanda neatly blocked the closest ones. Handguns were notoriously hard to aim.

Kanda picked up a good sized rock and lobbed it at the man, catching him in the shoulder. The man disappeared into the undergrowth with a cry, and he didn't get back up.

The samurai sat down heavily and panted.

"Got him?" Vanya asked.

He nodded and took another sip of water. The sun was almost directly overhead now. It beat down mercilessly on the hiding fighters, and Kanda hunkered down under the portion of the boulder sticking out of the ground.

"His name was Alma," Kanda said after he got his breath back.

"Friend?"

He nodded.

"... I em sorry for jyour loss."

"It was a long time ago. Sorry doesn't fix it."

He could still remember the day. It was etched into his mind like acid on metal. It was the first time Mugen had truly connected with him, the same way Alma's innocence had finally awakened in him for that fateful, terrifying fight. It had been unbelievably short, a single hazardous stroke. There had been blood and bone, but Kanda couldn't remember Alma's face. He just remembered fleeing into the dark, hiding with the corpses until finally someone came to check after days went by without a word.

He was pulled from his reverie by noises in the forest ahead of them.

The two shared a look, and Kanda stood up unsteadily. With his bad arm, he leaned against the boulder, and with his good arm he held out Mugen. Sure enough, there was the slightest movement in the trees. A normal person would've missed it, but Kanda was attuned to the smallest rustle of a leaf. Sometimes, that was all the warning you got.

There were many, too many for even him to fight in his condition. He refused to kill as it left a sour taste in his mouth, but he felt he had no choice in this matter. It was him or them. That was all there was to it.

"Vanya, if you can, you need to run," Kanda said in a whisper.

"I vill not leave jyou," Vanya said gravely. "My duty is to protect -"

"Protect the _kid_, not me_. _Now_ get." _

Kanda's mouth had gone dry. He knew he would survive an assault of so many. He might be riddled with bullets and kicked to the ends of the earth, but by God he would _survive. _That didn't mean he enjoyed dying. He remembered all too well that sudden darkness, the feeling of letting go of the precipice of this world and falling halfway to the next. It was an unpleasant feeling, like jumping off a cliff with no idea if there was even a bottom to hit.

He felt a hand on the middle of his back as Vanya came up to stand beside him, shirt tied securely over her front with the sleeves around her neck. She peered into the forest with him, and Kanda hissed, "I told you to _get out. _You'll just be deadweight."

"Kanda, those are not ze slavers," Vanya whispered back.

Then there was a great clomping forward in the brush, and a redhead poked her nose out into the light.

_We're here to save you, _she mouthed exaggeratedly, pointing to her compatriots, all men from the village along with a few who were former slaves. Kanda's shoulders slumped. He didn't think he'd ever been so happy to see that primpy, stupid airhead. He saw Din hastily haul her back under cover as shouts from beyond the boulder filtered through the trees.

And then, loudly, there was a _POP!_, and Nthanda seemed to materialize in front of them. The baby babbled excitedly and toddled towards Kanda as he winced at the loud amount of noise the kid was making. He was all too aware of how vulnerable they were, but he was also oddly relieved to know the kid hadn't died in the several hours he'd been gone.

Vanya and Kanda reached down singularly, and Vanya picked up the kid hastily. Nthanda gurgled at her seriously, as if to berate her for her absence, but to her credit her mask did not fall. She was as blank-faced as ever, with the barest twitch of the lips hinting at a smile. Nthanda reached towards Kanda, and the samurai offered a finger.

Then, there was another ringing _POP!_

The in-between place was familiar, though no less unpleasant. Once again stretched, squashed, changed, and unfurled, they seemed to tumble together into space. Past them, strange flying machines flew through the air with a buzz. Volcanoes erupted, faded, turned to land, erupted again. A Greek city consumed beneath a boiling crater, a massive ship sinking in the sea, a great celebration in a massive square full of tall, glimmering buildings as a lighted ball descended. Half-familiar images of men with guns marched past, through their minds, into their bodies, and out again. Here, time and space were the same, and they were a part of the fabric.

And then, again, there was a _POP! _and they were deposited back into normalcy.

The return almost sent the both of them to their knees. With a start, Kanda realized they were only a half mile behind the line of male villagers_. _Nthanda was once again quiet, seemingly in a kind of stupor. He weakly flapped his arms and burbled, but other than that did not make his normal fuss. This was perhaps the longest distance Nthanda had ever traversed in a single jump.

"Good," Kanda said to Nthanda. The baby put his hand in his mouth and drooled wearily. Behind them, the men began the long walk back to the village. The slavers probably would never know that they'd even left, besides the loud _pop! _of Nthanda's sudden transportation.

"Ve should start valking," Vanya suggested. Kanda nodded his assent, and the two began the long trip back to the village.

* * *

><p>The laundry was damp in his hands. One after the other, white squares and kerchiefs were hung on the trees, some of them on the line set up outside. Shirts, pants, and underwear, all a little wet, ended up swaying in the wind as he threw them on the string that served as the wash line. He had clothespins in his mouth, and the reed basket of laundry sat by his feet. The baby was playing with a clothespin not a few feet away, waving it around like a scepter.<p>

"Hey, get that out of your mouth. You don't know where it's been," Kanda commanded, his voice serious and low. Nthanda looked up at him with the clothespin sticking out between his lips, and he gurgled at Kanda. The samurai sighed heavily through his nose, put the kerchief on the line with deft fingers, and then walked over.

Nthanda screamed with delight as he suddenly went _pop! _and reappeared about fifteen feet to Kanda's right.

"Oh, come on, not this again," the man grumbled, as he prepared to run.

Nthanda had developed a rather trying game of tag that involved popping in and out around his chosen target. It was an annoying game, and one that he enjoyed to no end. It was a surefire way to tire out even all three of Nthanda's caretakers at the same time. Kanda, blessed with superior reflexes and a hint of unnatural speed, was the only one who could keep up with the tyke.

Kanda lunged for the baby, but the _pop! _rang out before Kanda's hands could close around the 10-month-old. He stood for a second, waited… and then there was the reentering _pop! _not five feet behind him. Deftly he turned, grabbed the baby, and Nthanda squealed and squirmed as he was finally caught.

"You're gonna have to do better. You only got two in that time," Kanda said as he pulled the clothespin out of the kid's hands. Nthanda whined and reached for the clothespin, but Kanda was having none of it. He put it in his pocket and gave the baby a look.

"Not today, you don't," Kanda said, and Nthanda pouted. The baby yanked on a strand of hair softly and laid his head on Kanda's shoulder as he continued to put up the laundry one handed.

"Ah, I see you're busy at work," an old, squeaking voice said from behind a large white sheet, and Kanda repressed a groan. Benny toddled around the sheet with a triumphant look on his face. Kanda could only glare at the old clairvoyant, and Nthanda, in tune to his caretaker, blew a raspberry at the old man.

"Funny. Ever since I became your guest, all I've _done _is work," Kanda said irately.

After the slavers had had their fill of villagers and swords and redheaded pests, they had promptly left. The villagers were more than happy to accommodate the five travelers for their part in the release of their family members as well as the new joining members of the community. Vanya had stayed with a group of young women in their hut, Din had set up shop with his own tent, and of course Lavinia was served hand and foot by her three, loyal, stupid servants.

Meanwhile, Kanda was stuck with Benny, who had a mile-long list of chores that needed doing. Benny had yet to actually lift a finger. While Kanda felt obligated to help, considering he was eating the man's bread and sleeping under his roof, he couldn't help feeling like he was being sold out here. So far, he'd watered both buffalo (which ended up hazardous to his health), cleaned the outhouse (a task he would wish only on someone as hated as Leverrier), fixed the thatching on the roof (there were fire ants – enough said), and retiled the kitchen (where he found a rather happy colony of termites). So far, the laundry task was the safest yet.

That could change at any minute, though.

"Yes, yes, well, I know you like to keep busy. Would you mind splitting some firewood after this? I am old and feeble and my arms are so, so weak," Benny said with a winning smile, and Kanda wished he could hack off that ridiculously long nose.

"And if I say no?"

"Well, that would mean I'd have to do myself, I guess…" Benny sighed dejectedly. "Or find one of the men in the village to do it for me… you know they love me so, and I'm sure they wouldn't mind –"

Kanda rubbed his eyes with his free hand.

"Okay, okay, I'll split the firewood, you old nag. Was that it?"

Benny tapped his chin in a painfully slow manner. Kanda couldn't count the number of times he'd wanted to throttle the old geezer for his ponderous habits. He was certain he did it on purpose. Teatime was utter torture.

"Ah, yes. The caravan's come in to town."

Kanda's eyes brightened. Nthanda sat up a little straighter in Kanda's arms.

"You're not yanking my leg. We can get out of this green, wet hell soon?"

"Well, they'll be staying a few days of course, but they have arrived, so I have heard."

Kanda's shoulders slumped with ill-disguised relief. Nthanda clapped his hands and burbled happily, pursing his lips. The samurai actually gave a warm look to the kid as he muttered, "It's about time."

Benny smiled beatifically, for once looking sincerely glad at the samurai's sudden lift in spirits. He'd watched the young man brood for several days now. The travelers didn't have the supplies necessary to make the trek to the city about three days' walk away, but the caravan could take them in a little under eight hours. Luckily for them, the caravan was on its inbound route around the tiny villages, a mix of horses and trucks laden with goods. It had taken a week, but the caravan had finally arrived. It seemed that these weary, footsore men and women were going to finally continue their journey.

"Do put up the laundry first, though. I'd hate to have mold in my sheets!" Benny said as he toddled back down the path towards his house, and Kanda deflated. He made a face at the man's back as he put up another sheet. When he was finished with the last of Benny's personal laundry, he put up his own meager set, along with Nthanda's. Hesitantly, he put up the kerchief he'd made of Ellis' dress on the line, and he stood back to admire his handiwork.

It was odd to him that domesticity had become sort of familiar to him. He'd once shunned anything vaguely resembling housework, doing the minimum when it came to laundry and cleaning. He was fastidious, yes, but he wasn't homey. Now, it was almost like meditation to him, something he could do without having to put much thought into. He felt good, knowing something had been done and that it would make some kind of difference in his life and Nthanda's life, even if it was something like laundry.

With that, he felt his gut plummet. He was becoming a _housewife. _

Shuddering, he strode hastily towards town.

* * *

><p>The Frenchman peered at his face in the mirror, sharp and angled with a strong chin and a pointed nose. He carefully lathered his face with a brush in a bowl on a table nearby, and he said in accented English, "Ze town'z people should arrive shortly. It appears you shall not have to wait long, <em>ma cherie."<em>

"Well, I'm certainly glad of that. We've visited nearly seven of these villages, hunting down these people, and I've nothing to show for it."

Around the two, the caravan hustled with the activity of commerce, people setting up tables and goods. They all took their wares out of their trucks and wagons, as well as tents. Some people slept in their cars, others set up tents. The Frenchman himself didn't like sleeping on the ground, and he didn't fancy stretching out on the hard seats inside his personal truck, so he'd set up a rather small, open-air camp.

"My apologiez, _mon ami. _What you seek to do is... difficult. Africa eez a beeg place."

"Regardless, my employer will be very cross when I tell them I can't find them. I've been tracking them for a long time."

The Frenchman hummed as he began his morning toilette, carefully shaving his face. His blade was good and sharp this time, seeing as he'd picked up a brand new one from a previous stop where the people were slightly more civilized than the norm. He'd never know why he'd decided to pick up a stake in this African wilderness. At first there'd been this enchanting call of the wild, but then the mosquitoes and the leopards and the centipedes set in, and Africa slowly lost its charm. The natives did not help in this regard. Many were hostile to the fair-skinned, and others were hardly more advanced than their primitive roots. In contrast, his passenger was much more comfortable here in the wilds of Mozambique than even he was.

"Is zis what you do? Hunt people?"

"...Sometimes. I used to, as it were. I've taken it up again."

The Frenchman cracked a small smile, shaving around his bushy mustache. The brawny man stood up and threw over his shoulder, "You should be going after game on ze safari instead. I've heard zis man is dangerous. Has a sword long as ze Nile and a look zat could curdle milk inside of a cow."

"He's no more dangerous than a fly to me." That drew a grin from the head of the caravan.

"Hubris cometh before the fall."

"Ah, one of the pseudo-learned, are you?"

The Frenchman finished with the little bit of stubble still attached stubbornly to his chin. He whisked away the lather off the razor, and he shrugged in response to his companion's banter.

"I'm sure it was somezing like dat, I cannot remember ze exact verse."

There was a pregnant silence as the man wiped off his face, and after he dug around in his bag for aftershave.

"Do you need lotion? I have some, and I know how much you love to keep civilized," the Frenchman joked as he brought up a can of creamy lotion and a bottle of stinging aftershave. He smiled at his companion's expression.

"No, _merci. _I don't need any - I have my own."

The Frenchman slapped some of the aftershave on his cheeks, dabbing a little bit. He picked up a comb from the same table, and he started to brush his hair, first parting it to the side. He had to look presentable for customers, and there was nothing that these Africans found more fascinating than a European wearing aftershave, dressed to the nines in his best clothes. They considered it a travesty to wear so much clothes in the heat. He considered it a blessing - it protected his fair skin from the unmerciful sun.

"Besides, how eez it zat you find yourself out here? A woman, alone, in Africa, hunting people down? When I first picked you up, I was afraid I'd been had. I have heard stories of monsters in women's skin before," he said as he took scissors and began to trim his prodigious mustache. He was awfully proud of his facial hair, if he was honest. Few could boast such a voluminous bush under their nose.

"Well, when you're given a task, you do it to the best of your ability, do you not?"

The Frenchman considered the idea, and he shrugged. He'd never tried particularly hard at anything. He did the minimum, scraped by. Of course, that sort of life had left him with a large amount of gambling debt, threadbare trousers, and a life ferrying Wedgwood across the plains to backwater villages, but thinking about that only made him uncomfortable. He brushed it aside, and he asked, "You must make quite a lot, to hunt people."

"It's less hunting, more... stalking."

"Zat eez not a better word, _mon ami. _Stalking eez followed by pouncing and killing. And you do not look much for killing. Or pouncing."

"You would be surprised."

He considered this as he reviewed his face in the mirror. He'd seen the coin she carried. Several different kinds, from many different countries, and quite of a lot of it. Either her employer supplied her well, or... she perhaps took a little bit from the people she hunted. He wasn't sure which, and he honestly didn't want to know. Those sorts of people were always tailed by pointed questions in the form of men with guns. Better to remain ignorant. Besides, she paid him well to ferry her through all these villages.

"How do you know zat your prey eez _here, _anyways? We follow a small route, and you have narrowed it down to zis area," the Frenchman asked ponderously as he rubbed a bit of hair wax between his fingers from a tin and turned up the sides of his mustache. There - now he looked a proper man.

"I'm quite positive they're around here, as I lost them around here. We were separated."

The Frenchman pulled on his shirt, straightening up. He brushed it off, dust filtering down, and he turned around, hoping for validation of his appearance. His companion gave him a small, polite round of applause, and he bowed graciously.

"Shall we, Miss Lissa?" the Frenchman asked.

The woman stood up, straightening her glasses and straightening her ill-fitting dress over her buxom chest. She smoothed the last few strands of gray hair back into place, though they stubbornly refused to rejoin their brethren in a bun.

"We shall, Jean. I'm dying to see civilization, and I don't know how long I can last without a good cuppa," she sighed as she took his arm. Together they ventured into the village to find a long-haired swordsman, a cheerful Finder, a dour clergywoman, and the baby that connected the three.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Another chapter, another day. And not just any day - CHRISTMAS! Consider this my little present to you. Another chapter and the continuation of Afrikaan Voices! I've had the first half of this chapter sitting in my computer for a pretty long time, and I finally got around to finishing it. Once I got going, I really got going, though.

My apologies to karina001. She probably thought that I fell off the planet, I've been gone so long. My faithful reviewer!: I am returned. For now. And this chapter, hopefully, will be a delight to you just as much as it is a delight to read your reviews. Your support is priceless. And to amenokuma - I'm glad you found the rest of the story! I've been meaning to update my AO3 account, but I just haven't got around to it yet. Perhaps that'll be the thing to do today.

Now- discussion! _What have you absolutely loved about this story? What are some of the highlights that you can remember? What kind of genre would you classify this story as? How many times have you reread this story - be honest! Do you think the setting comes alive? What are things that could be improved? Are the characters interesting? Do you wish there were more canon characters? If you do want more canon characters, who would they be? How do you think Nthanda will develop being in such a chaotic environment?_

Anyways, that's all for now. Merry Christmas, and God bless you, every one!


	19. Polo

He walked slowly, his footsteps oddly muffled by the packed dirt of the path. People in the village sometimes passed him by, but for the most part everyone had gathered at the southern end of town where the caravan was setting up their wares. From what he'd been told, the caravan would stay here three days to resupply, barter, and rest up before pushing for the city. Benny had pulled some strings with the head of the caravan so that the entire entourage could hitch a ride with the group, and for that the samurai was thankful. He hated to think what would've happened if the trailmaster had decided not to allow the travelers to come with them.

Someone could have ended up a head shorter.

Kanda shifted Nthanda in his arms, the kid quieter than usual. Perhaps he understood the gravitas in Kanda's step as he headed closer to the mud-daub hut. Nthanda grabbed a lock of hair for reassurance as Kanda knocked on the door quietly, and a woman answered in her native tongue. Kanda opened the door and walked in awkwardly. A young woman with a close-shaved head was busy with her beadwork, and on the pallet nearby, Vanya lay on her stomach. Her back was covered by a blanket, but the gauze bandages crept up her shoulders to cover her wounds. Her hair was blue-black, and she lay almost completely motionless.

Kanda nudged her with the toe of his boot, and she woke up with a start, grabbing a nearby knife. She looked up through a fringe of hair at the samurai and, realizing she was not in danger, collapsed back onto the layers of cloth and mattress. The woman in the corner didn't even look up from what she was working on.

"Don't scare me like zat," Vanya groaned, burying her face into the sheets.

"Caravan's here," Kanda said without preamble. Vanya rubbed her face with a hand wearily.

"And?"

"We leave within three days."

"Good to know. Vhy are jyou telling me dis?" Vanya sighed.

Kanda took a seat next to her, Nthanda in his lap. The baby stood up and clapped his hands, trying to crawl over Kanda's shoulder. He winced as the kid got his foot tangled in his hair, and he tried to restrain the child from toppling over his shoulder and onto his head. Vanya watched with slight amusement, though only a well-acquainted person would've been able to tell, for all her stoicism.

"Need you to watch His Graceful Master Pisspants," Kanda grunted as Nthanda fell down into Kanda's lap. Nthanda babbled and then suddenly screamed, making all three jump. Kanda glared at the kid as he started to crawl away to go and play with something else dangerous.

"Because I need more vork to do vhile I'm sick," Vanya said with a deadpan expression, looking over her shoulder at the tyke. Nthanda proceeded to explore the wattle-and-daub walls, probably to search for insects to play with. Vanya had recently taught him how to catch bugs, as well as not scream at the sight of one. He'd been after them ever since.

"Tch. You'll survive."

"Are jyou shoor?" Vanya asked with a cocked eyebrow, and Kanda leaned his chin into his hand to give her a dark look.

"Honestly? Not with your sanity intact. You got three days' peace. I want a break."

Kanda unfolded his legs and sat with his back to the wall, leaning his head against it. His hair, luckily, cushioned his scalp from the sharp straw, and his shirt did the same. He closed his eyes, relishing the blessed moment of personal space. Ever since Vanya was injured, Nthanda had been his constant companion. Once again, he was delegated to taking craps in the woods with one eye on the kid and the other out for potential threats to his privacy. While he'd hand him off to Din, the dark-skinned Finder had enough on his mind, what with trying to get them passage and hunting with the other villagers for their dinner. Kanda would readily admit that, while he could snip off the wings of a fly, he was a horrible shot. Dinner was not his priority.

Instead, he was stuck washing an old man's sheets and underwear.

"I need to talk to you," Kanda finally said, eyes still closed. Vanya looked up with puzzlement. By this point, she was used to wearing less clothes than normal. To be honest, it was nice in this horrid heat. Kanda, of course, ignored all implications as to the sex of his partner, instead focusing on the things that were most important - travel plans and battle contingencies. He had no time to be embarrassed by a woman's lack of shirt or bare elbows.

"Hm."

"We're going by sea."

Vanya, for once, looked surprised. She was quiet for a long while. Kanda tilted his head and cracked his eyes a fraction of an inch to look at her.

"Jyou don't like ze vwater. Vhy by sea?"

"Faster. More efficient. Get this over with quicker. We'll already be near a port," Kanda said, folding his hands over his navel. "Can you make it that far? It's extra distance to make it to Xai Xai."

Vanya frowned as she digested the question, and Kanda waited, albeit impatiently. Though he had quite a lot of time, he wanted a straight answer fast. It'd make things much easier on them if they had to break company due to Vanya's injuries. He wouldn't move her if she didn't think she could be moved.

"Vhy don't jyou just haul me zere vit' jyou wizout asking?" Vanya asked. "Jyou're not ze type to ask permission."

"Feeling generous. You're no good to me if you can't fight. I don't carry loads."

The two sat in silence, while the woman in the corner continued her work. The only noise was the sound of her needle going through thin leather as Nthanda picked up dirt clods and threw them at the wall.

"I can make the caravan wait," Kanda said matter-of-factly. _That _certainly grabbed Vanya's attention.

"Jyou vouldn't," she said, absolutely sure. Kanda thought for a moment and looked back at her.

"Okay. No, I wouldn't."

Vanya mulled it over. He was suddenly being a lot more... thoughtful. What was the matter with him? He was still grumpy, yes, but he was asking _her opinion,_ something Kanda almost never did. In fact, Kanda was always sure that Kanda's opinion was best, and there were no ifs, ands, or buts about it. The only person so far who could sway his opinion was Din, and that was with quite a lot of subtle manipulation and some well-placed, very pointed aggression.

"Are jyou sick? Haf jyou been injured?" she asked with real concern. Kanda made a face and looked at her, and that was the end of that question.

"No. I'm perfectly fine. Thank you." Kanda worked his jaw.

Why _was _he shilling for Vanya to come with him after all this? She'd received injury after injury, though a lot of that was due to misfortune rather than her own incompetence. Never the less, at the very least she was a bad luck charm. He should've gotten rid of the CROW at his first opportunity. Had it not been for Nthanda's intervention, as well as some other... occurrences, he would've left her back at that burning bridge. Instead, he was sitting here with her, talking about travel plans nearly a month later.

"Fact is, if I have to suffer with him, you gotta suffer, too," Kanda finally spat, crossing his arms and heaving a large sigh. "I don't care if you're half-filleted or not, you're going to go. I'm not about to sit on a boat for three weeks with nothing to do by myself."

"Ah - asking is just a pohlite formality. How nice of jyou. Of course, jyou'll steel have Din. And -"

"Don't you _dare _imply Lavinia's goi-"

"Oh, she's going. Jyou knohw it."

"Over my dead body."

"Jyou recover from death regularly. Zat is not a good phrase fohr jyou to use."

Kanda's eyes snapped open at the mention of his... er, health benefits, turning to stare at the Russian girl, but her head was already turned away.

"Besides. Nthanda likes her," Vanya added, her words slightly muffled. Kanda scoffed at the notion entirely, waving a hand at the tyke.

"He doesn't _like _her. He just doesn't blatantly hate her," Kanda mumbled. Nthanda, as if realizing someone was talking about him, toddled his way back to them and headed towards Vanya. Kanda quickly stopped him with a single hand before he could try to play patty-cake with Vanya's stripped back. The toddler pouted and tried to reach for the Russian woman, but Kanda quickly pulled him over to sit in his lap.

"I need to get out of here and find the caravan. Watch him," Kanda said, putting a hand on the baby's head and lightly bobbling it. Nthanda ignored it and continued reaching for Vanya. The CROW turned her head to the child and gave a small, hairline smile, reaching out a finger to him. He grasped it willingly, and she poked his stomach.

"I ken do zat, yes," Vanya assured as Kanda got up to leave. The samurai brushed himself off and headed to the door in long strides. He had a lot of work cut out for him. After talking with some of the people in the caravan, he was going to need to see about resupplying and whatnot. He also had to be on the lookout for more Akuma. They typically followed large groups of people, like carrion crows following an army.

"Also - to answer jyour question... I vould complete zis mission, even if I hed to crawl to Cairo. Jyou ken bet jyour life on zat."

Kanda stood at the door, drumming his fingers against the jamb. With nothing more to say, he walked out.

* * *

><p>The dog sat panting in the heat. He didn't really <em>mind <em>the heat, but then again, as a dog, he didn't mind much. He watched the two-legged ones walk back and forth. He'd been following the man who smelled good and always gave him good jerky for most of the day, seeing as the other one with the long tail on his head (what an odd place for a tail) shooed him away more often than not. The tiny two-legged one was always with the long-tailed man, and that made the dog a little sad. After all, he had enjoyed being the small two-legged human pup's mount, and often he understood him better than the other humans that passed him by.

Alas, he could not even reach the female human, and the other female human, the one that smelled like tea and old flowers, was... elsewhere. The dog's tail stopped wagging momentarily before picking up its thumping rhythm when he saw the dark man walk near.

"Here you go, frien'. Yeah, you eat dat right up. Saved it fohr you. 'At's a good boy," Din said with a wide smile, handing over some leftover chicken. The dog happily munched on it, looking up at Din with an adoring expression.

He'd long decided that this was the best thing that could've happened to a town dog like him. He was a mutt - like all other town dogs, street dogs, the kind of dogs who had no family but their pack. He hadn't liked that town pack much, though, seeing as they took his food and generally were rude. He did like that they could scare the pants off other two-legged walkers, but there was more to life than that. With these people, he got ear scratches. He never got ear scratches before.

He could do without the big animals with the booming stick things, though. They made his ears hurt.

He followed the dark man through the rows of huts, passing by other chattering female humans and male humans. They all smelled earthy, like smoke and dirt and other goodly smells. The dog liked it here enough, but he had sensed that his owners (for that was what they were, the people who claimed him as part of their pack) had been itching to leave for quite some time. The dog wasn't sure why - after all, there were birds in the grasses here, and there were places to sleep out of the rain, and the dirt was just right for rolling in. However, where his pack went, he would follow.

Now, the two legged ones were talking loudly with other two legged ones over big platforms holding things. Some of them had food on them, he knew. Some of them had shiny things. Others had dull things that smelled faintly of food - something to put food in! How ingenious! There were big huts made of bright fabric that weren't there the day before, and the faces were ones he didn't recognize. More importantly, they smelled like town people - motor air, and lye soap, and fragrances from far off places.

"Kanda! Dere you are. I din' knoh if you were cohmin' down here or no'," Din shouted over the crowds, and the dog followed his line of sight. He smelled him before he heard him. The two legged tail-headed one, Kanda, smelled frothy, like a pot about to boil over. There was the inescapable odor of human sweat, soap from the Orient, and of course metal like nothing he'd ever encountered. While the dog appreciated Kanda's protection, he wondered why he was such a grumpy man. After all, he had things to eat and the tiny one to play with. How could one be grumpy after that? He wouldn't even scratch him behind the ears.

"Tch. I need to talk to the caravan head. Know where he is?"

The dog went and sniffed Kanda's boots, and he could faintly detect something perfume-y, like flowers in fragrant oils, as well as fresh linen and blood. He'd been to see the young female. He didn't have the tiny person with him, so he obviously had dropped him off. The dog grinned up at the man in the hopes that, perhaps, today he would be generous and give him a well-deserved head rub. Alas, today was not that day.

"No idea. Dere's swarms a people up dat a way, tho'. They sellin' somethin' or other, somethin' nice, so mehbe dat's where you'll find deh boss. Dey usually sellin' sohmethin' really good. Otherwise, dey wouldn't be head a' the caravan," Din explained, pointing towards the far end of the lines and lines of stalls. The dog leaned against Kanda's leg, and Kanda shifted away, leaving the dog to readjust.

"I'll look there first, then."

"Good luck to you, den. I'll be seein' to Miz Vanya. I hear she like deh bugs, so I got her dis." Din lifted a box that held something in it, something with lots of little legs. The dog was sure he'd seen things like it before, because he'd tried to eat one. Needless to say, it hadn't tasted good. Perhaps the female would like to eat it better. How thoughtful of him!

The dog found himself following Kanda down the line, and he sniffed as many available things as possible. Kanda walked with a purpose, though, and the dog had to catch up with his long stride. For something with two legs, he sure could walk fast. The dog was almost level with him when a sudden aroma caught his attention.

Was that... the smell of old flowers?

The dog lifted his head high, trying to peer through the crowds of people in the hot sun. The steady smells of smoke, dirt, skin, human hair, food, metal, hair product, and soap obscured the track, but he could pick it up again. He sniffed along the ground as he trailed Kanda, and that's when he knew he smelled it again, that old female's smell.

He barked, and several people took a step back in surprise. Kanda looked back at the dog and frowned.

"If you're gonna follow me, behave," Kanda said sternly, pointing his metal pointy stick's holder at his nose. The dog whined and hung his head as Kanda put it away and walked forward again. The dog slunk after, looking back.

There! His eyes weren't as good as his nose, but that was her alright. He was suddenly torn between the two - the long-tailed one or the old one who gave him food? He liked both, and he knew that she'd be very happy to see the long-tailed one. Finally making his decision, he went after the old female instead.

As he caught up, he heard her grumble, "...blast this insufferable heat."

"Well, if you did not vear so many petticoats, I believe you vould be much more comfortable, _mademoiselle,_" her companion said, keeping stride with her as she walked by. Her eyes cast over the available wares.

"No sign of him... I tried to ask some of the villagers if they'd seen him, but they don't understand a lick of the Queen's English," Ellis complained, dabbing at her face with a handkerchief hidden up her sleeve.

"Perhaps he really iz not here, _mon ami. _After all, from vat you've told me, he iz a rather transient individual."

"Yes, this is quite true, but he is also hampered by a small child, an entourage of servants and their witless mistress, and two Order officials. He's not going anywhere until he's sure that he can good and truly assure they'll be safe moving to the city," Ellis said as she hiked her skirts, smoothing back a single, stray strand of graying hair. Her glasses were slightly crooked, and she was more disheveled than the dog remembered. She smelled just right, though, exactly like she had before!

The dog grinned lopsidedly as he tried to catch up with her -

Suddenly, a man appeared before him, and the dog stopped in his tracks quizzically. He tried to get around the man, but he wouldn't let him pass. What was this? Why wouldn't he let him get by?

The man chattered at him in some obscure language, and the dog whined, trying to dart past. Suddenly, he was grabbed the scruff, and he came face to face with Kanda.

"We're going after something. I need you to sniff," Kanda said, and the dog panted with a slight whine. Looking over his shoulder, he tried to find the elderly female from before, but she was already lost in the crowd. While he could go after her... Kanda's wrath was not something to incur lightly. The dog followed obediently on the man's trail.

"Now explain to me what's the problem again?" Kanda asked the man next to him.

"Sharp animal. Come round here."

"Sharp animal? Tch. I'll take it on. We'll see how sharp it is then."

* * *

><p>"Mistah Kanda... Next time, you shouldn't take on deh porc-a-pine y'self," Din sighed. The dog happily gnawed on a bone given to him by one of the village men, looking up now and again to his pack leader.<p>

He was laying on his back with his arm laying in an old man's lap. He was covered from shoulder to chest with quills, and his cheek was stuck with three more. Needless to say, the pack leader was unhappy when he'd had to come back from the hunt.

"I didn't know they shot qui- OW!"

The old man mumbled quick apology as he dropped the quill into a bowl held by the redheaded female who smelled like embroidery and lavender. She winced, and the dog put his bone down before walking over sympathetically to pant on her.

"Eugh! Dog breath..." she complained, making a face, and the dog laid his chin on her arm. The poor dear, having to hold that bowl up for the old man. She should pet him instead. He tried to lick her face, and she leaned back in disgust. He put his paw on her forearm, but she really was having none of that. Lavinia scootched away from the dog that was trying to get a little attention.

"Dingane, please do something about him. He's being a nuisance."

"Enough, now," Din said, trying to shoo him away, and the dog, dejected, went back to his bone, watching the proceedings. He wasn't sure how much he liked this particular hut. It had this strange, stinging smell to it, as if there was something attacking his nose. Everything was so clean, and it sort of scared the dog. It reminded him of bad places, though he wasn't sure why. Still, he gnawed at the bone to try and forget his troubles. He wondered why the two-legged ones went to all this trouble to make a room so clean. Sometimes it was better not to ask questions. He'd not understand anyways.

"We need to - OW! Benny, I'm gonna spear you with one of these," Kanda said through gritted teeth.

"Now, now, that's no way to speak to your doctor. Hup!"

_"AH!"_

"Oh, don't be a baby. It's just a quill. I'm almost done as it is."

Din tapped his fingers against his gun as he watched with amusement, and he asked, "Seence you couldn't find ya caravan mastuh, you got a plan? We just leavin' wit' em?"

Kanda sighed, wincing as another quill was removed. Another _plink _echoed as it was dropped in the bowl.

"No choice but to. Can't wait forever. Vanya might have to be left behind."

"She en't gettin' left b'hind, Mistuh Kanda. Nthanda'd throw a fit."

"I know that. _AH! _Careful! I'm just trying to make the best of it as I can. Benny said they're staying three days. That should be enough. We'll pack up and go."

"And Miz Ellis? Should we contact kin when we get to Xai Xai?"

There was a silence, and the dog watched the two men. Lavinia was uncharacteristically quiet while Kanda mulled it over.

"We'll see."

They continued their chatter, and the dog growled at his bone. It was a lot harder than he'd expected. Perhaps it was because it was fresh. Disinterested with the affairs of his pack leader and his follies, he picked up his bone and walked out of the hut to find a quieter place to chew in peace.

Try as he might, though, he could not seem to find a single good place to lay down and eat his bone. Either the ground was too hot, there was too much shade, or there were people shooing him off. The dog trotted happily around in his search for a nice place to -

There it was again, that phantom scent of old flowers. The dog stopped and spun around in a circle, trying to pinpoint the smell. She was around here _somewhere... _A part of his pack was here, and he needed to find her. She probably didn't even know she was lost! He'd help her! With his mouth still clamped around his bone, he followed the scent down one of the dirt roads until he finally reached a small wall.

"Where could they possibly be?" a voice said, and his ears perked up. The dog ran headlong through the brush, bowling over something with lots and lots of cloth. He tried to extricate himself from the cursing, flailing mass of cloth, and he sniffed all available skin.

"Get off me, you mangy - oh!" Ellis said in surprise as the dog happily panted in her face. Ellis took the dog's head in her hands and turned it side to side as if to make sure it really was the right dog, and the animal certainly didn't mind. He licked her straight up the face, and the human scrunched up her whole visage. Oh, happy day! He'd got her attention at last! She wiped off the saliva with her hanky.

"I'm so glad I've found you, you nasty little beast, you," Ellis said with a sigh, scratching his chin. The dog wagged his tail happily. Oh, it was good to know he was loved! Yes, another member of the pack, here at last! Just like when he found the two men who served the redheaded woman! Everyone had fed him really well after that! It helped that he liked the two-legged old female a lot. She always gave good chin scratches.

"If you're here... perhaps the others are not far behind," Ellis said as she got up, dusting herself off. The dog, seeming to catch her meaning, barked and began to walk back the way he'd come. Oh, she must want the other pack members. He could take her to them! He knew where they were, and if seeing them would make her happy, it would make him happy too. He started tugging on her skirts, and she finally began following. Sometimes the humans needed lots of prodding to get his meaning.

He bounded up to the house that the long-tailed man had been in, yelping at the door, but no one answered. He whined and nosed his way through, Ellis on his heels.

No one was there.

What was this madness? They were here a moment ago. He had _smelled _them. Surely they were nearby. Ellis huffed.

"Well, apparently, they're not here. I've officially been to every hut in the village," she muttered, dusting her hands and walking back out the door. The dog whined and headed after her, trotting at her heels - but then he heard the others coming back. He turned around happily, but when he turned to look for the old female, she was already half way down the road. The dog yelped at her, but she didn't stop. Humans - could they not hear? Were they deaf?

The dog raced back to the house, and sure enough Kanda was walking back in with a towel over his shoulder, the others trailing behind him. He was sopping wet across the chest, and Benny was chastising him.

"...And you should always put bandages on. I don't care about your healing abilities, you should always try to mitigate the chances of gangrene and infection."

"Yeah, yeah, next thing you'll be telling me not to do my job for a living because it's unhealthy."

The dog barked at them, but all he earned was a quick _thwap _to the head with a metal stick holder. He hung his head and whined at Kanda, walking in tight circles.

"I don't know what's the matter with him today. He keeps barking at me for no reason," Kanda sighed.

"Perhaps he's trying to tell you something," Lavinia said with awe, staring at the dog. He opened his mouth and panted gleefully. Someone understood!

"...Lavinia, he's a _dog."_

"Your point?" she asked irately as she followed him to a back room. Benny shook his head as he watched the two bicker, and he looked down at the dog.

"They never get it, do they?" the clairvoyant said with a mostly-toothless smile. The dog cocked his head at them with a small noise of distress. Indeed.

* * *

><p>Well, the first two times he'd tried to get the two to notice each other, it hadn't worked. Perhaps it was time to be a little more overt about it.<p>

The dog crept around the hut. Kanda was busy with his sword, practicing. Vanya was inside of the hut, probably asleep, while Nthanda went about doing what toddlers did. The dog genuinely thought back on the life he'd had, and he began to reconsider how badly he wanted this pack back together. However, he knew that no pack should be so broken up. Besides, he was sure that Ellis wanted to be back with them all! It was worth the risk, right?

The _swoosh swoosh _of the sword continued as the dog sat in the warm sun, panting in the heat. Coolness flooded his tired, hot body with every breath, and he sorely wished he could drink from another puddle. The first time he'd drank from one of the green puddles in the road, Din had hauled him away quickly and given him different water. Humans were odd. Water was water, right?

After what seemed an eternity, Kanda finished with his swordsmanship, and he wiped off his forehead. Nthanda clapped his approval, tottering around before sitting down and becoming entranced with the grass. The dog lay down and wait. Any second now, Kanda was going to go over to the tiny human pup...

Like clockwork, Kanda began to head over, and the dog slowly got up and crept nearby. He'd left his sword on the ground to glint in the sun like a bejeweled stick of death. The dog had seen it slay many large animals, some of them with boom sticks attached, others without them. One had huge teeth that curled around a long, long nose. That one was the scariest. The dog could hardly believe he was so close to the stick that had lightly hit him so many times.

Finally he closed his teeth around it gingerly and picked it up. Kanda still had his back turned to him, and the dog stood there, waiting for him to notice. Finally, Kanda turned with Nthanda in his arms, and he frowned at the sight of the dog with the sword and scabbard in his maw.

"What do you think you're-?"

The dog took off at a sprint.

"HEY!"

Everything passed in a blur. He flew around huts, and he jumped over brush. He almost got stuck at one point between two huts, but he managed to maneuver through it. And then, finally, he saw the caravan. However, he could hear the footsteps on his trail, and the dog knew that his steps were numbered. Would he even make it?

"When I catch you... I'm gonna skin you... and use you... as a diaper... you mangy... disgusting... _cur..." _Kanda threatened between breaths. While the dog couldn't understand a word, he inherently knew that none of it was good. The dog ducked low under a table and through people, barreling through the humans looking at the food and the not-food, searching in the stalls for the woman with the smell of old flowers. Hot on his heels, Kanda followed with Nthanda in his arms.

"Come back here with that, you sack of-"

The dog disappeared under a table, and Kanda smashed into a whole stall of pans that clattered. The dog took the moment to look around, sniff some - there was the scent!

Kanda suddenly grabbed the dog's tail, and he yelped, scrambling to get away. Kanda raced after him, scattering dust in his wake as he gave chase. People protested loudly, and several stalls were almost overturned in the pursuit. Finally, the dog saw his target talking animatedly to an imposing two legged one with a rather impressive bush of hair under his nose.

The dog dived under her skirts, sword in his mouth, and cowered as Kanda skidded to a stop. The dog peeked from beneath the voluminous shield, Ellis protesting to the animal up against her new petticoats.

"Good heavens! Oh, you - get out from there, right now! I just bought these, and I don't plan on washing all the dog hair out of it, do you hear me? If you slobber on them, I'll turn you into a pair of shoes, see that I don't!"

Kanda stared, almost open-mouthed, at the older woman before him. Ellis, likewise, stared at the young man once she'd cared to ignore the canine standing on top of her feet. The two stood in shocked silence amid a growing group of people who were either angry, amused, or curious. Ellis' bit her lip, and Kanda swallowed, his Adam's apple jumping. The silence was thicker than molasses. The birds had stopped, and the very air seemed to hang still.

The dog took this as a good time to stick his head out, drop the sword in between the two of them, and duck back under cover.

This seemed to break the trance. Kanda slowly bent over to pick up the sword, cleaning off the dog saliva around the middle. Ellis offered her handkerchief, and Kanda took it gingerly before wiping down the scabbard. Kanda looked up at her, and he finally coughed.

"You're supposed to be dead right now," he finally said.

Ellis threw her arms around the neck of the young man, and Kanda grunted in surprise. He stiffened at the contact, his shoulders scrunched as she squeezed him tight. After a few moments, he very gently patted her back.

"You ignorant little fool, you," Ellis huffed as she stepped back and took his face in her hands, her eyes glistening. She tried to keep a stiff upper lip, though her eyes were brimming. "Do you know how long I looked for you? Good heavens, you would have thought I'd walked a thousand miles across Africa for you, young man. I don't plan on being left behind like that, you understand?"

Kanda blinked, suddenly aware that he was surrounded by many people, and he gruffly brushed her off. "Yeah, yeah, don't go getting soft on me."

Ellis sighed, her shoulders deflating. The crowd slowly dispersed, and the dog finally slipped out from Ellis' many layers of skirts. She looked down at the dog, who was hanging his head and looking up at her pleadingly as if in apology, and she smiled. She tapped the dog's nose affectionately and, taking this as a sign of forgiveness, the dog put his head under her hand.

The two looked fondly at the dog, and finally, Kanda said, "Glad you're back."

Ellis looked up at the young man who deigned not to look at her, instead keeping his eyes on the dog.

"Likewise, dearest."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Aaaaand, here's the next installation of Afrikaan Voices! I'm glad that everyone has continued reading, despite the very spotty scheduling for these chapters. I'd hoped to release them once a month, but obviously that plan fell hard on its face and didn't even try to get back up. So, instead, I offer a consolation prize. I will try and update when I have the time (and the creativity). I would rather put out a quality chapter that just bust out a dozen half-sorry ones.

And now your favorite part - the discussion! _This story is so old now! What got you hooked to this story, and why do you keep reading? How do you think a sea voyage is going to play out? What parts of Africa do you want to see in this story, if you have a particular preference? Do you thinkthe story is too complex? Not complex enough? What has been your favorite chapter so far? What sort of writing style do you like, personally? And finally - what are you doing for the summer! _

I hope all of you have a great summer, pass your finals/semester tests, and have lots of fun! God bless you, and happy reading!


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